Chapter 3: Formalisms

A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature

Chapter 3: Formalism

Abandons historical and biographical information and focuses on the work as a separate entity

Formalistic critics examine the intrinsic factors of the work’s structure

“Art for art’s sake”

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Chapter 3

I. The Process of Formalist Analysis: Making the Close Reader

Elements of prose and poetry, terms, structure, imagery

II. A Brief History of Formalist Criticism

A. The Course of Half a Century

History of Formalism (cont’d.)

B. Backgrounds of Formalist Theory

C. The New Criticism

The “Fugitives” (Ransom, Tate, Brooks, Warren); relationship of metaphysical poets to modern poets (cf Eliot); important textbooks such as Understanding Poetry and Understanding Fiction (Brooks and Warren); other texts by Gordon, Tate, Wimsatt, Kermode

D. Reader-Response Criticism: A Reaction

Key Terms and Devices

III. Constants of the Formalist Approach: Some Key Concepts, Terms, and Devices

A. Form and Organic Form

(Schorer): “the difference between content, or experience, and achieved content, or art, is technique”

B. Texture, Image, Symbol

Crucial role of imagery and symbol; metaphor versus allegory

Key Terms (cont’d.)

C. Fallacies

Affective, intentional

D. Point of View

First-, second-, and third-person; reliability

E. The Speaker’s Voice

F. Tension, Irony, Paradox

Using the Formalist Approach

Making the Close Reader, p. 74

History of Formalist Criticism, p. 76

The “New Criticism,” p. 78

“A slumber did my spirit steal…,” p. 93

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Application of the Formalistic Approach

The formalist critic dissects the poem solely using structural devices (imagery, diction, metaphor) to convey the meaning of “To His Coy Mistress”

Prominent motifs of the poem:

Space/Time metaphor

Sexuality8