Definition Formalist Strategies

Formalist critics (or New Critics) focus on the formal elements of a work
Language Structure Tone

Close Reading

The keys to understanding a text exist within the text itself

How it Differs
Formalist critics look only at the intrinsic matters in a literary work. They do not look at:
Historic influences Authors state of mind Readers response

How it Differs
They dont DENY the historical, political situation of a workthey just believe works of art have the power to transcend these things Differentiates great works of art from poor works of art although they dont all agree all the time Scientific approach to analysis- always use evidence from text!

What They Do
Formalists look at the relationship between form and meaning, emphasizing how a work is arranged, giving it a coherent shape This is know as close reading, paying attention to:
Diction, irony, paradox, metaphor, symbol, plot, characterization, narrative technique.

When it came about

1930s-present Also related to: Russian Formalism, New Criticism, Neo-Aristotelianism

Poems and Close Reading

Poetry is great for close reading because of a poems relative brevity, allowing for detailed analyses of nearly all words and how they achieve their effects.

Close Reading
Close reading starts with actually examining the passage to be analyzed. Any literary textindeed, any textis built up of a complex series of choices its author made in putting it together. Some of these choices are large in scale: Whether to write a poem or a play, for instance, or an epic or lyric

Close Reading
But most of them are quite minute right down to the level of each particular metaphor and indeed each word. In close reading we are particularly concerned with these small choices, although we need always to keep the larger ones in mind as well.

Tropes
One way to pay attention to choices is to look for changes, breaks, discontinuities. In the classical discipline of rhetoric, these breaks or discontinuities are known as TROPES, literally, turns.

Tropes
Some of these tropes you already know:
Metaphor Simile Personification Etc.

Formalist Questions
How does the work use images to develop its own symbols? What is the quality of the works organic unity? In other words, does how the work is pulled together reflect what it is? How are the various parts of the work interconnected? How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the text?

Questions cont.
How do these parts and their collective whole contribute to or not contribute to the aesthetic quality of the work? How does the author resolve apparent contradictions within the work? What does the form of the work say about its content?

Questions cont.
Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the entirety of the work? How doe the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of a poem contribute to the meaning or effect of the piece? What patterns do you notice? What at the possible multiple meanings for individual words? Do the names of characters have significance? How does the tone of the narrator affect the work?

Phrases and Terms To Use

All poetic terms Paradox Irony Ambiguity Contradictions Repetition Theme Style Narrator Character Setting Images/ Imagery

How Can You Apply this to a novel?

As you read a chapter, record passages: with moving language That describe a character-psychically, emotionally Significant, telling dialogue changes in narrators voice (and the style of the narration in general)