english

• Formalism


  Formalist Approach - It discovers the true meaning of a work by giving attention to the form or structure, elements and literary devices operating in it
• Formalist Approach


  • Examines a text exclusively as a self-contained object in isolation from the world, biographical information about the author, or the text's effect on the reader
  • Does not concern the historical events outside of the story, social, cultural, religious nor political ideas
  • Emphasizes the value of the text as an entity in itself
• Character


  A person, animal, being, creature or anything personified in a story
• Setting


  The place and time a story takes place, including the atmosphere
• Tone


  The overall emotion conveyed by both the choices of words, theme, sensory images, symbolism and the narrator of the story such as suspenseful, affectionate, happy or sad
• Point of View


  Who is telling the story? (First Person, Second Person, Third Person)
• Theme


  The author's message to the readers
• Imagery


  Descriptive language to create images in the mind of the readers through their senses
• Formalist Critic


  • Must be a close or careful reader who examines all the elements of a text individually to discover how they form an organic unity
  • Questions how they come together to create a work of art
  • Looks beyond the work by reading the author's life, or literary style
  • Examines the work's historical background and condition of the society
  • Allows the text to reveal itself
  • Analyzes how the elements work together to form the unity of structure and to give meaning to the text
  • Achieves understanding of the text by looking inside it, not outside nor beyond
  • Studies how the text's influences or figures out similarity with other works
  • Takes the elements distinct and separate from each other
  • Scrutinizes the point of view, structure, symbols, tone, theme and other elements or literary devices