3. What is Formalism
The formalistic approach Formalism is a branch of literary theory and criticism which deals with the
structures of text. It is based on the technical purity of the literary work.
• This approach focuses on form. The analysis stresses items like symbols, image, and structure, and
how one part of the work relates to the other parts and to the whole.
• Formalist critics believe that all information essential to the work must be found within the work
itself, there is no need to bring in an outside information to help the reader in the analysis of the
literary text.
• Formalism is divided into two branches Russian Formalism and New Criticism.
4. Russian Formalism and New Criticism.
• Russian Formalism was a school of literary criticism in Russia from 1910 to 1930.
• Principles of Russian Formalism: the analysis of literature should focus on factual
Linguistics. Literature is independent of external sources surrounding the texts.
• New Criticism –is anAmerican Literary theory in the 20th century. Its philosophy was
taken from JohnCrowe Ransom’s The New Criticism, 1941. New Criticism talked about
the closed-reading approach.
• The closed-reading approach was a method developed by I.A. Richards in which only
words on-page were analyzed very closely in a text. It argued that a text should be very
closely read and analyzed without referring to external materials and issues such as
cultural, political, and economic and others. New Criticism did not deal with cultural,
political or social issues around a text. It dealt only with the textual world.
https://pediaa.com/what-is-the-difference-between-russian-formalism-and-new-criticism/
5. New Criticism
Anglo-American literary criticism 1920
• New Criticism, emphasizes explication, or "close reading," of "the work itself."
New Criticism examines the relationships between a text's ideas and its form,
between what a text says and the way it says it. New Critics "may find tension,
irony, or paradox in this relation, but they usually resolve it into unity and
coherence of meaning.
• It also focuses on the tension ( the way elements in the text reflect, conflict, and
unite at the end). And the ambiguity in the text ( the way texts remain open to
more than a single unified definitive interpretation) .
6. What formalist does not focus on
• The name of the author is not important.
• The time in which the author lived.
• Any cultural impact on the author.
• The author’s intentions (Intentional Fallacy).
• The readers intentions( Effective fallacy) .
• The political or religious beliefs of the author.
7. Formalistic Approach Limitations
• The theory neglects the role of the author. Without the author there is no
literary work.
• It neglects the role of the reader in contributing in analyzing the literary text.
8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by
MarkTwain that was published in December
1884. It is considered one of the greatest
American novels, and one of the first works of
fiction written in the vernacular of local folk.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is told from the
point of view of Huck Finn, a barely literate teen who
fakes his own death to escape his abusive, drunken
father. He encounters a runaway slave named Jim, and
the two embark on a raft journey down the Mississippi
River.
9. Formalistic approach in Huckleberry Finn
By looking closely and making meaning of The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn through a formalistic lens, critics interpret examples of irony, humor,
sarcasm, lies, and hypocrisy.Twain's use of these literary devices adds deeper
meaning to the text and impacts the reader's interpretation of the novel as a
whole
10. The Novel is structured in a pattern of returns and departures.
Huck and Jim departed from land through the Mississippi river,
back and forth.
The structure of the novel parallels the flow of the river.
The point of view allows us to see Huck’s story through his eyes by
the use of the first person narration technique. Huck is an honest
boy but unreliable to the reader. His view is limited to what he sees
and report.
Huck has an ironic mode of speech.
The Mississippi is the novel’s major symbol
Huck will continue to encounter social sins wherever he goes.
Huck and Jim search for freedom but ironically, they never achieve it.
The river is a symbol of refuge, the only place to be oneself and to
escape from society
11. Romance and Reality, Land and River:The Journey
as Repetitive Form in Huckleberry Finn A journey
from north to south, A journey from relative
innocent to horrifying knowledge Huck learns bit by
bit gradually and unwillingly that the mass of
humanity is hopelessly depraved, and the genuinely
honest individual is constantly being victimized,
betrayed, and threatened.
Romance and Reality, Land and River:The
real freedom and contemplationWe said
there warn’t no home like a raft, after all.
Other places do seem so cramped up and
smothery, but a raft don’t.You feel mighty
free and easy and comfortable on a raft
12. "Young Goodman Brown“ published in 1835 in New
England Magazine and collected in Mosses from an Old
Manse (1846).It is a story of a dream vision, or
conscious day dream, which explains the theme as being
a formal allegory, composed of using huge symbolism.
Many symbols in the story help Goodman Brown move
toward a vision of evil which causes an unexpected
effect of distrust due to his uncertain decision of
experiencing a dream or reality.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Young-Goodman-Brown
13. In this story, the ambiguity could be seen in
paradox, the resolution of opposites: reality or
dream, dark and light, and in images and symbols.
In "Young Goodman Brown," the "image" almost
immediately takes on symbolic qualities. For
example, the pink ribbons in the hair of Faith,
Brown's wife.
Another good example of symbolism is the fact that
Faith's ribbons are pink, an in between color. Red is a
symbol of evil or being provocative and white is a
symbol of purity and innocence. Like the mixture of
dark and light in the story the ribbons are neither red
nor white.They are somewhere in between.
14. Young Goodman Brown and his
wife Faith, are both
symbolic. Brown represents
everyman’s inherent propensity to evil.
His wife Faith stands for true faith and
virtue. Brown’s marriage to
Faith symbolizes that he clings to a
faith in good in the world.
