Formalism
An approach to Literary Criticism
which originated in Russia in the 1920's. To the formalist critic,
art is style, technique
and craftsmanship, and the primary function of
criticism is the
objective and scientific analysis of literary style.
The formalist critic
attempts to explain or evaluate the way in which
the text is structured
but does not attempt to evaluate the content of
the work against any
standards of truth or morality. According to Viktor
Schlovsky, a well known
formalist critic, "Art is a way of experiencing
the artfulness of an
object; the object is not important," and "A work of
art is equal to the
sum of processes used in it."
People of the
Movement
Victor Schlovsky
Roman Jakobson
Mikhail Bakhtin
Related Movements
The original school of formalists which originated in Russia was known
as
the Russian Formalists. In the United States, the formalists influence can
be seen in the New Critics. A later critical
movement called Structuralism was greatly
influenced by a
linguistically oriented group of formalists known as the
Moscow
Linguistic Circle, one of whose members was Roman Jakobson.
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