Formalismis a school ofliterary criticismandliterary theoryhaving mainly to do with structural purposes of a particular text. It is the study of a text without taking into account any outside influence. Formalism rejects (or sometimes simply "brackets,"i.e., ignores for the purpose of analysis) notions of culture or societal influence, authorship, and content, and instead focuses on modes, genres, discourse, and forms.

In literary theoryInliterary theory, formalism refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text. These features include not onlygrammarandsyntax but also literary devices such as meter andtropes. The formalist approach reduces the importance of a texts historical, biographical, and cultural context.Formalism rose to prominence in the early twentieth century as a reaction againstRomanticisttheories of literature, which centered on the artist and individual creative genius, and instead placed the text itself back into the spotlight to show how the text was indebted to forms and other works that had preceded it. Two schools of formalist literary criticism developed, Russian formalism, and soon after Anglo-AmericanNew Criticism. Formalism was the dominant mode of academic literary study in the US at least from the end of the Second World War through the 1970s, especially as embodied inRen WellekandAustin Warren'sTheory of Literature(1948, 1955, 1962).Beginning in the late 1970s, formalism was substantially displaced by various approaches (often with political aims or assumptions) that were suspicious of the idea that a literary work could be separated from its origins or uses.The term has often had a pejorative cast and has been used by opponents to indicate either aridity or ideological deviance.Some recent trends in academic literary criticism suggest that formalism may be making a comeback.{Formalism and its Malcontents: Benjamin and de Man on the Function of Allegory, Jim Hansen, New Literary History, 2004, Vol. 35, No. 4, 663.

PedagogyWilliam H. Thelin criticizes Maxine Hairstons approach to teaching composition from a current-traditional standpoint, which she then mixes with the political. He claims that No matter how sound the politics the student would have no choice but to regurgitate that dogma in the clearest terms possible and to shift concentration onto matters of structure and correctness. Mary Ann Cain writes that formalism asserts that the text stands on its own as a complete entity, apart from the writer who produced it.Moreover, Cain says that one can regard textual products as teachable and still maintain that being a writer is a "natural" act, one not subject to instruction.Composition, like creative writing, has flourished under the assumption that students are already writers, or have the capacity to learn-and that everyone should be writers. Yet the questions composition tends to pose within this assumption are not so much about which aspects of writing can or cannot be taught, but how writing can be taught and under what conditions.In regards to formalist composition, one must ask, to what extent is this need for academic discourse real any more than the need for more imaginative writing is real-except to perform some function, to get something done?.ResearchFormalism research involves studying the ways in which students present their writing. Some ways formalism research is conducted involves allowing the text to speak to the readers versus cutting out unintended meaning in a written piece. Respectively, these two methods deal with language as the master writer versus a teacher as the master writer.

Defining Formalist Criticism Focus on formal elements such as language, structure, and tone Bases its inquiry on the work itself, the text Background This model of criticism began in the early 20th century in reaction to Romanticist theories of literature Rose to prominence in America from after World War II through the 1970s Embodied by the Theory of Literature by Ren Wellek and Austin Warren Other major Formalist critics were I.A. Richards and John Crowe RansomRussian Formalism Created scientific examination of literature Includes elements of linguistics Excludes other external conditionsBecause literature is not regular communicative language, so outside conditions are not applicableNew Criticism Literature Founded by John Crowe Ransom in his book The New Criticism is an aesthetic object Poems, novels, and stories are works of art that themselves deserve merit These works of art are separate from their surroundings and should warrant close reading

ExamplesOedipus "Those eyes of yours, which now can see so clearly, will be dark."- Teiresias This quote from Oedipus is an example of irony in its use of mentioning sight and brightness from a blind prophet to a figuratively blind king- The text also provides foreshadowing to the end of the play where Oedipus will turn blind alongside the fulfillment of the prophecySlaughterhouse-Five " walk through a door in 1955 and come out another one in 1941"- In the novel, Vonnegut uses a specific structure choice of quick succinct paragraphs that do not follow a direct storyline but instead jump backward and forward- This structure serves to mirror the Tralfamadorian belief that one can experience all moments at a given time because time is not linearDisadvantages Formalist criticism fell out of prominence in the 1970s This was mainly due to many complaints that it viewed texts in isolation and ignored the context of the novel along with allusions Some even argued that Formalist criticism reduced literature to nothing more than a collection of rhetorical devicesThe Tragedy of Hamlet Formalist critics praising the work on its character development and use of literary devices Also felt that Hamlet failed to adhere by the strict rules of classical drama in structure and plot