Chapter 3:

Formalisms
A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature
Chapter 3: Formalism
 Abandons historical and biographical information and
focuses on the work as a separate entity

 Formalistic critics examine the intrinsic factors of the

work’s structure

 “Art for art’s sake”

2
 Chapter 3

I. The Process of Formalist Analysis: Making the Close

Reader

 Elements of prose and poetry, terms, structure,

imagery

II. A Brief History of Formalist Criticism

A. The Course of Half a Century

 History of Formalism
(cont’d.)
B. Backgrounds of Formalist Theory

C. The New Criticism

 The “Fugitives” (Ransom, Tate, Brooks, Warren);

relationship of metaphysical poets to modern poets (cf
Eliot); important textbooks such as Understanding
Poetry and Understanding Fiction (Brooks and Warren);
other texts by Gordon, Tate, Wimsatt, Kermode

D. Reader-Response Criticism: A Reaction

 Key Terms and Devices
III. Constants of the Formalist Approach: Some Key
Concepts, Terms, and Devices

A. Form and Organic Form

(Schorer): “the difference between content, or

experience, and achieved content, or art, is technique”

B. Texture, Image, Symbol

 Crucial role of imagery and symbol; metaphor versus

allegory
 Key Terms
(cont’d.)

C. Fallacies

 Affective, intentional

D. Point of View

 First-, second-, and third-person; reliability

E. The Speaker’s Voice

F. Tension, Irony, Paradox

 Using the Formalist
Approach

 Making the Close Reader, p. 74

 History of Formalist Criticism, p. 76

 The “New Criticism,” p. 78

 “A slumber did my spirit steal…,” p. 93

7
 Application of the Formalistic
Approach
 The formalist critic dissects the poem
solely using structural devices (imagery,
diction, metaphor) to convey the
meaning of “To His Coy Mistress”

 Prominent motifs of the poem:

Space/Time metaphor
Sexuality