Formalism Practice Questions

Correct answer: Defamiliarization

Shklovsky introduced 'ostranenie' (defamiliarization) to argue that the purpose of art is to lead the reader to a fresh perception of the world. By breaking the automatism of perception, literary language distinguishes itself from ordinary, practical language.

Correct answer: Fabula

The 'fabula' represents the raw material of a story in its logical and chronological order. It is contrasted with the 'syuzhet', which is the actual arrangement of those events within the literary work.

Correct answer: Close reading

New Critics believe the meaning of a text is contained entirely within the work itself. Close reading involves a detailed, line-by-line examination of the text's formal elements, such as paradox, irony, and ambiguity.

Correct answer: Evaluates a work based on the author's stated intentions or biography

The 'Intentional Fallacy' argues that an author's intention is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the success of a work of art. The text must stand as an autonomous object regardless of what the author meant to do.

Correct answer: Cleanth Brooks

In 'The Well Wrought Urn', Cleanth Brooks argues that a poem's meaning is inseparable from its form. Therefore, summarizing or paraphrasing a poem results in a loss of its essential literary essence.

Correct answer: Literariness

Roman Jakobson famously stated that the object of literary science is not literature, but 'literariness' (literaturnost). This refers to the specific features that transform a verbal act into a work of art.

Correct answer: Paradox

New Critics like Cleanth Brooks viewed paradox as the fundamental 'language of poetry'. It allows the poem to unify opposing forces and maintain a complex, organic balance.

Correct answer: Practical Criticism

Richards gave students poems without titles or author names to observe their direct responses. This experiment highlighted the importance of focusing on the 'words on the page' rather than external information.

Correct answer: Using objects, situations, or events that evoke a specific emotion

Eliot argued that art should be impersonal. The 'objective correlative' serves as a sensory formula that triggers the desired emotional response in the reader without the author having to describe it explicitly.

Correct answer: Its emotional impact on the reader

Wimsatt and Beardsley argued that focusing on the reader's emotional response leads to impressionism and relativism. Like the Intentional Fallacy, this concept seeks to preserve the poem as an objective, autonomous artifact.

Correct answer: Vladimir Propp

Propp's work shifted the focus from the content of tales to their structure. He demonstrated that while characters may change, the underlying functions (actions) of the plot remain remarkably constant across different stories.

Correct answer: Organic unity

Organic unity implies that every part of a work is essential to the whole, much like a living organism. New Critics believed that in a great work, form and content are so tightly woven that nothing can be removed without destroying the work's meaning.

Correct answer: The multiple simultaneous meanings language can carry in poetry

Empson argued that ambiguity is not a flaw but a fundamental strength of poetic language. He categorized different ways that words can yield multiple layers of meaning, enriching the complexity of the text.

Correct answer: John Crowe Ransom

John Crowe Ransom's book provided the title for the movement and outlined its desire for a more professional, 'scientific' approach to literary analysis that ignored historical and social 'extrinsic' factors.

Correct answer: Socialist Realism

The Soviet government viewed Formalism as 'bourgeois' and elitist because it ignored the class struggle. Socialist Realism demanded that art serve the state and be easily understood by the masses.

Correct answer: The artistic arrangement of events in a text

While the fabula is the 'what', the syuzhet is the 'how'. It includes the use of flashbacks, foreshadowing, and pacing that distinguish a literary narrative from a simple report of events.

Correct answer: T.S. Eliot, in The Sacred Wood

T.S. Eliot's essays emphasized the autonomy of the poem. He believed criticism should focus on the work itself rather than using it as a window into the author's soul or a historical document.

Correct answer: Deformation and the deformed object

Formalism posits that 'form' is not a container for content; rather, literature is the result of 'deforming' ordinary language or reality through artistic devices to draw attention to the medium itself.

Correct answer: The recognition of incongruities and experiential complexity within a text

For New Critics, irony is a structural principle that allows a poem to acknowledge competing perspectives and resist simplistic, one-sided interpretations.

Correct answer: A figure who embodies both personal uniqueness and universal humanity

Wimsatt used this term to describe how literature manages to be specific and sensory (concrete) while simultaneously addressing general truths about human existence (universal).