formalist

• Formalism


  Discovering 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
• Point of View


  Who is telling the story
• Theme


  The author's message to the readers
• Imagery


  Descriptive language to create images in the mind of the readers through their senses
• A 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
• A formalist critic questions how the elements come together to create a work of art
• A formalist critic looks beyond the work by reading the author's life, or literary style
• A formalist critic examines the work's historical background and condition of the society
• A formalist critic allows the text to reveal itself
• A formalist critic analyzes how the elements work together to form the unity of structure and to give meaning to the text
• A formalist critic achieves understanding of the text by looking inside it, not outside nor beyond
• A formalist critic studies how the text's influences or figures out similarity with other works
• A formalist critic takes the elements distinct and separate from each other
• A formalist critic scrutinizes the point of view, structure, symbols, tone, theme and other elements or literary devices