Formalist Criticism

The video introduces formalist criticism as a critical approach to literature. It poses a question about how one would like to be judged, relating it to how formalist criticism views a text – focusing on its current state rather than its past or external influences.

Formalist criticism analyzes only the text itself. It disregards the author's background, the reader's opinion, and the social context in which the text was created. The core belief is that the text stands alone and should be analyzed based on its internal elements.

A key method in formalist criticism is 'close reading,' where the text is read word by word. Formalist critics believe that every word in a text is interconnected and contributes to its overall meaning and structure.

Formalist criticism examines elements within the text such as imageries, figurative languages, and the text's physical structure. It looks for features like rhymes, literary devices, and the relationships between different parts of the work.

Critics of formalist belief literature is not a reflection of artists and authors. Instead, a formalist critic examines the form of the whole piece, including individual parts like scenes, chapters, settings, moods, vocabulary, and other text elements, based solely on what is observed within the text.

The video provides an example of formalist criticism from 'A Rose for Emily' by William Faulkner (mistakenly attributed to Victoria J. Crossman in the transcript). Viewers are encouraged to pause and read the example to understand the application of formalist criticism.