Formalism and New Criticism Formalism stresses the importance of…

Question Answered step-by-step Formalism and New Criticism Formalism stresses the importance of… Formalism and New Criticism Formalism stresses the importance of literary form to the meaning of a work. Formalist scholars consider each work of literature in isolation. They consider biographical, historical, and social matters to be irrelevant to the real meaning of a play, short story, novel, or poem. For example, a formalist would see the relationship between Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost as entirely unrelated to John Milton’s own marital concerns, and they would view theological themes in the same work as entirely separate from Milton’s deep involvement with the Puritan religious and political cause in seventeenth-century England. Formalists would also regard Milton’s intentions and readers’ responses to the epic poem as irrelevant. Instead, formalists would read the text closely, paying attention to organization and structure, to verbal nuances (suggested by word choice and use of figurative language), and to multiple meanings (often created through the writer’s use of paradox and irony). Formalist critics try to reconcile the tensions and oppositions inherent in the text in order to develop a unified reading. The formalist movement in English-language criticism began in England with I. A. Richards’s Practical Criticism (1929). To explain and introduce his theory, Richards asked students to interpret famous poems without telling them the poets’ names. This strategy encouraged close reading of the text rather than reliance on information about a poet’s reputation, the details of a poet’s life, or the poem’s historical context. The American formalist movement, called New Criticism, was made popular by college instructors who realized that formalist criticism provided a useful way for students to work along with an instructor in interpreting a literary work rather than passively listening to a lecture on biographical, literary, and historical influences. The New Critical theorists Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren put together a series of textbooks (Understanding Poetry, Understanding Fiction, and Understanding Drama, first published in the late 1930s) that were used in colleges for years. After the 1950s, many New Critics began to reevaluate their theories and to broaden their approaches. Although few scholars currently maintain a strictly formalist approach, nearly every critical movement, including feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic, structuralist, and deconstructionist criticism, owes a debt to the close reading techniques introduced by the formalists. 1. Is the literary text divided into discernible sections? What relationships are there between the sections? Are there patterns in the similarities and differences you find among the sections? 2. What are the most distinctive elements of the literary text? For instance, are differences among characters emphasized, and if so, is this distinctiveness achieved by description by the narrator or other characters, dialogue, or other means? Consider all the literary elements typically used in this genre of text (such as story, poem, play, or essay). You may want to consult one of the Reading sections in Chapters 1 to 5 to find a list of questions you can ask about the particular genre you are reading. 3. What do you notice about the language that is used to carry a plot forward, evolve a metaphor, or define any of the other literary elements? Are there particular uses of words, figures of speech, allusions to other literary texts or cultural matters, or symbols that seem to echo throughout the text? 4. When you gather all the thoughts you’ve had about this literary text, what do they add up to in terms of a theme or themes that the text explores? If you notice any ideas that seem to fall outside the themes you’ve discovered, attempt to account for them by rethinking your ideas. 5. How does taking a formalist viewpoint help you understand how you create meaning from the literary text you are reading?  Arts & Humanities English English Literature LIT 1000 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)