Formalist

Criticism
Welcome Future Literary Critics! Let’s discover
about Formalist Criticism!
 What is Formalist
Criticism?

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 The Formalist Approach

Formalist criticism is defined as a literary criticism approach which

provides readers with a way to understand and enjoy a work for its own
inherent value as a piece of literary art. Formalist critics spend a great
deal of time analyzing irony, paradox, imagery, and metaphor. They are
also interested in a work's setting, characters, symbols, and point of
view. The formalist literary approach reduces the importance of text’s
historical, biographical, and cultural context.

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 Reading as a Formalist critic
Do’s:
Must first be a close or careful
01. reader who examines all the
elements of a text individually
04. Achieves understanding of it by looking
inside it, not outside or beyond

Allow the text to reveal

02. Questions how they come together
to create a work of art 05. itself

The text is a self-contained

03.
Respects the autonomy of
work 06. entity

Analyze how the elements work

07. together to form unity of form.

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 Reading as a Formalist critic
Dont’s:

Look beyond the work by The text’s influences or

01. reading the author’s
biography, or literary style 03. prior similarity with other
works

Examining the work’s Take the elements distinct

02. historical background and
condition of society 04. and separate from each
other

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 Important considerations
Form
1. Look for motifs
2. Examine the Point of
View
3. Scrutinize the structure
4. Development of form
Diction Unity
1. Watch out for
1. Look for tensions – the conflict of
denotation/connotation these elements
2. Examine the symbols 2. Analyze the figures of
3. Follow the work’s unity speech – ambiguity,
irony, paradox, etc.
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 Why
Formalist
criticism
Important?

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 It is important because the true meaning can only be
determined by analyzing the text’s literary elements and
understanding how these elements interact to form a
cohesive whole. It declared the unity of form and content by
emphasizing that in a literary work, the former cannot be
understood without the latter, and vice versa. For formalist
critics, determining how such elements interact with the
text’s content to shape its effects on readers is a primary
goal.

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 The Formalist Approach
A Rose for Emily:
A Formalist Approach

The narration of “A Rose for Emily” is written in first person, or as a

member of the community. Using phrases such as, “we did not say she was
crazy then” made the story believable, as if it actually happened, rather than
a third person narrative most fiction stories use. The imagery Faulkner
presents in this story gives off a setting in the old south. Words such as
“tradition,” “generation”, and “sort of hereditary obligation” contribute to
an old southern feel.

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thanks!

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