Formalism

and
New Criticism
FORMALISM

Regards literature as “ a unique form of

human knowledge that needs to be
examined on its own terms”.

• All elements of a text is important

FORMALISM
ELEMENTS OF FORM:

style

structure

tone

imagery
FORMALISM

How elements work together?

Form a work of literature is inherently part of its content

FORMALISM
Elements of the story or poem

 Characters
 Setting
 Tone
 Point of view
 Diction
 other elements
FORMALISM

Form is the key

Formalist movement began in England

with the publication of I.A. Richards’
Practical Criticism (1929).
FORMALISM PROS
o Gives a better understanding of the writer’s techniques in
writing, such us literary devices, figure of speech and others.

o Works best when applied to poetry and short story fiction.

o Emphasizes the value of text instead of its text

o Can be done without much research as structure is the focus.

o Well-known approach

o Develops close-reading skills because you need to into the

literary devices
FORMALISM CONS

o Can be consuming based on the text size and writing style of

an author

o Context is more of structure

o Not compatible with all types of text,

o Ignores other aspects such us historical, psychological and

gender aspects.
Example: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
BY: ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference .
FORMALISM
FIGURE OF SPEECH
o Metaphor o Assonance
Somewhere ages and ages
road
fork in the road o Personification
Yellowwoods 3rd line of the stanza
Because it was grassy and
o Simile wanted wear
2nd stanza
as just as fair
EXAMPLE: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Analyzing the structure in terms of:

 Stanza
 Fixed number of lines
 five verse or lines.
 Rhyme pattern: ABAAB
 Tone or feeling of the author is something reflective and
pensive as he choice in life.
 Theme is about choice in life
What is New Criticism ?

New Criticism is a school of thought that

emerged in the early to mid-20th century. It
promotes the "close reading" of a text,
treating it as an autonomous work of art, and
avoiding extrinsic factors.
New Criticism was a dominant trend in English and
American literary criticism.

• It was first known as formalism.

Proponents
Prominent New Critics include Cleanth Brooks,
John Crowe Ransom, and W.K. Wimsatt.
New Critics believed that the meaning of the
literary work is contained within the text itself,
and the external factors such as the intention of the
author, their biographical information, and
historical and social context should not be
considered when interpreting a text.
New Critics focus on the text's
internal coherence and unity. They
examine elements such as irony,
ambiguity, paradox, and tension to
interpret the text's meaning.
Both formalism and New Criticism prioritize the
text itself and aim to reveal deeper meanings and
insights through careful analysis. They are often
contrasted with other literary theories, like
reader-response criticism and historical
criticism, which consider external factors and the
role of the reader or historical context in
interpretation.
The drawbacks of it is that it ignores the historical and
social context in which the work was written as well as
the author's biography information or when and where
the piece was written.
Prepared by : Venjie Ann Alpetche
Maria Dhe C. Bihag
BSED ENGLISH 3A