essay about formalist approach

• Research Papers
• Sources 101
• Literature ›

A Formalist Approach to “The Story of an Hour”

The following sample literature essay is 1087 words long, in apa format, and written at the undergraduate level. it has been downloaded 24179 times and is available for you to use, free of charge., send via email.

Kate Chopin’s short story “ The Story of an Hour ” is filled with little surprises. She sets the reader in one direction with a specific image, and then startles you with a change of direction. Our initial look at the protagonist of the story is one of a delicate woman, easily harmed. “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 1894). The writer cleverly does two things in this opening line that will be used later in the story to surprise the reader. The first is creating an image of a delicate woman. The second is making us aware she has a heart condition. We are drawn in immediately by the news that she is about to be informed she is a widow. The use of surprise and plot intrigue is clearly evident in this short story, lending it to be easily observed from a formalist approach. Our textbook states: “This approach is most widely used in literary comparison and criticism; it focuses on the form and development of the literary work itself” (Clugston, 2010). Chapter 16.2 of our text asks why is the plot intriguing? Did surprise occur? The surprise twists in this short story are what make it stand out, and what makes the piece memorable. The first sentence of the story will come back to haunt the reader in a short while, with a surprise ending to the story. This story suits the formalist approach as it is filled with surprise twists.

After hearing of her husband’s death, the woman reacts strongly: “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself, she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow” (Chopin 1894). With these lines the image of an exceptionally grief-stricken widow comes to mind. The reader sees the utter collapse of this woman, wildly thrashing in grief, and then removing herself to grieve alone. She goes upstairs and sits by a window, staring at the spring scene budding below her. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin 1894).  To the reader, this image of budding spring contrasts deeply with the image of a weeping widow, facing an empty life and dealing with death instead of the spring of life. Chopin writes about the spring scene, a metaphor for life, with its blue sky and bird song.

As we are led into this image of life and contrasting death, Chopin begins leading us to our first surprise. She uses a foreshadowing technique to keep us interested: “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air” (Chopin 1894). The reader feels a foreboding, still the feeling of death lingers, and we expect bad news. The first surprise is striking. We are awaiting disaster, yet the young widow, with her unlined face streaming tears feels released “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: free, free, free!” (Chopin 1894). The reader is left aghast. 

Chopin describes an ordinary love between husband and wife. The widow will “weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome” (Chopin 1894).

As a reader, I was shocked at this turn of events, yet accepted this statement that she loved him, yet felt released. As Chopin continues to write descriptively about the widow’s reaction to her husband’s death, this sympathy waned somewhat. The widow is really truly elated at the prospect of widowhood. To add a bit of historical perspective here, one could look at the author’s own history of widowhood and independence, and occasional “scandalous” writing. One of her novels, “The Awakening” was criticized because it dealt with a woman’s strength despite her adulterous life, and Chopin often wrote about her personal quest for freedom (Clugston, 2010). The content and message of “The Awakening” caused a stir in local society, and Chopin was denied admission into the St. Louis Fine Art Club after its publication. In the remaining short five years of her life she wrote only a few short stories (Wyatt 1995).

The ending of the story contains the final surprise. After the reader is completely aware of the widow’s elation at her sudden freedom, even despite having loved her husband, he walks in the front door very much alive. The widow drops dead at the sight of him. “When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills” (Chopin 1894). This is the final irony and twist in this short interesting story. Esther Lombardi in her article, “How to Become a Critical Reader” states: “Consider the title. What does it tell you about what the book, essay, or literary work is about?” (Lombardi).  “The Story of an Hour” is filled with twists and plot intrigue, describing the reality of what one-hour can hold in the course of life’s surprise ups and downs. Kate Chopin does a wonderful job of manipulating the story to mirror the unexpected events that can occur at any time in our lives.

Chopin, K. (n.d.). "The Story of an Hour". Virginia Commonwealth University. Retrieved September 18, 2013, from http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/

Clugston, W. (2010). Responding to Literary Experience, Literary Criticism: A Brief Overview. Journey into Literature (pp. Ch 2, Ch 16). San Diego CA: Bridgepoint Education Inc.

Lombardi, E. (n.d.). How to Become a Critical Reader . Books & Literature Classics. Retrieved from http://classiclit.about.com/od/forstudents/ht/aa_criticalread.htm

Wyatt, N. (n.d.). Biography of Kate Chopin. Virginia Commonwealth University. Retrieved from http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/katebio.html

Share [DOCUMENT_TITLE]

Download Document

We will send [DOCUMENT_TITLE] to your email.

Latest sample uploads

Capital Punishment and Vigilantism: A Historical Comparison

Pancreatic Cancer in the United States

The Long-term Effects of Environmental Toxicity

Audism: Occurrences within the Deaf Community

DSS Models in the Airline Industry

Common Core State Standards

Nursing Admissions Essay

The Porter Diamond: A Study of the Silicon Valley

The Studied Microeconomics of Converting Farmland from Conventional to Organic Production

Financial Analysis of PUMA and Nike, Inc.

© 2024 WRITERTOOLS

The Great Gatsby pp 9–17 Cite as

The Formalist Approach

• Stephen Matterson  

242 Accesses

1 Altmetric

Part of the book series: The Critics Debate ((TCD))

Formalism may be defined as a critical approach in which the text under discussion is considered primarily as a structure of words. That is, the main focus is on the arrangement of language, rather than on the implications of the words, or on the biographical and historical relevance of the work in question. A strictly formalist critic would, for example, approach The Great Gatsby as a structure of words, ignoring the details of Fitzgerald’s life and the social and historical contexts of the novel. However, formalism, or the concept of strict literary formalism, has often been attacked by individual literary critics or schools of criticism on the grounds that it reduces the text to nothing more than a series of words, thereby limiting its meaning and power. It is true that the Russian Formalists in the early years of the century attempted to examine the text in this way, but Western formalist approaches have tended to be much less theoretical. In practice, such critics have been very responsible to the meaning and themes of the work in question, rather than adopting a linguistic approach. For example, from the 1930s onwards, a movement in Britain and America, loosely called the ‘New Criticism’ began to dominate critical activity and teaching methods.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Unable to display preview.  Download preview PDF.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 1990 Stephen John Matterson

About this chapter

Cite this chapter.

Matterson, S. (1990). The Formalist Approach. In: The Great Gatsby. The Critics Debate. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20768-8_2

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20768-8_2

Publisher Name : Palgrave, London

Print ISBN : 978-0-333-48307-7

Online ISBN : 978-1-349-20768-8

eBook Packages : Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Writing a Formalist Literary Analysis

Using formalism, a critic can show how the various parts of a work are welded together to make an organic whole. This approach examines a text as a self-contained object; it does not, therefore, concern itself with biographical information about the author, historical events outside of the story, or literary allusions, mythological patterns, or psychoanalytical traits of the characters (except those aspects described specifically in the text.)

A formalist critic examines the form of the work as a whole, the form of each individual part of the text (the individual scenes and chapters), the characters, the settings, the tone, the point of view, the diction, and all other elements of the text   which join to make it a single text. After analyzing each part, the critic then describes how they work together to make give meaning (theme) to the text.

Point of View Setting Characters Plot Symbols Theme

A thorough analysis of the text is important to write a good paper here. Remember the judgment you make about a literary work will reflect your own values, biases, and experience; however, you MUST respect the author ' s words and intentions as presented in the text. Do not analyze a work in terms of what you would like to see; analyze it in terms of what you actually observe. Remember to clearly separate your assumptions from the author ' s assumptions.

·     Before you begin to write, re-read your notes, considering which approach seems most appropriate. Write your answers to the following questions in FULL sentences.

o    Did a particular aspect (literary element) of the novel make an impact on me?

o    What relationships between the various parts of the novel (and literary elements) do I see?

o    What lesson (meaning or theme) did the author want me to learn from reading this novel?

·     Write a thesis which clearly and directly states the point you want to make about the novel. Consider this example of a thesis statement:

Example 1 :

Setting in "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty is effective: the descriptions are beautiful.

·     Next underline key words:

Setting in "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty is effective : the descriptions are beautiful .

·     Answer these questions about the example:

1. Does this thesis limit and focus what the writer has to say about the story?

Definitely not! This thesis (and I use the term loosely) is very vague. The key terms are so general that they fail to provide any focus for the paper. To provide specific examples to support this statement will be very difficult.

2. Can this thesis help to explicate the novel ' s theme?

Again, this statement has no real connection to what the author is saying (the meaning) in the story.

Eudora Welty uses the setting of "A Worn Path," presented in the vivid descriptive phrases of the protagonist ' s strenuous journey through the wild country of Natchez Trace, to connect the reader with Phoenix , both as a character and as a symbol .

1. Does this thesis limit and focus what the writer has to say about this story?

Yes! This paper will be give examples from the text which show how the description of the setting (during this character ' s journey) characterize the protagonist as a person and a symbol. In addition, repetition of the underlined key words will help this writer build coherence in the paper.

2. Can this thesis help to explicate the novel ' s meaning (theme)?

No, at least not directly. While connecting the setting along the journey to the main character will definitely get at the author ' s theme, the theme is not made clear. In fact, though both the character and the symbolism, almost assures this paper will discuss theme, the actual reference to the story ' s theme is missing. However, this thesis would address the assignment response for looking at form (structure) and how the story is built.

Example 3 :

Through Phoenix ' s strenuous journey in the wild country of Natchez Trace, Eudora Welty uses her protagonist to symbolically show the struggle of African-Americans toward equality and integration in the South after the Civil War.

Yes! This paper will give examples from the text showing how the character ' s journey symbolizes the African-Americans struggle for equality and integration. Repetition of the underlined key words will help this writer build coherence in the paper.

Yes! It connects the setting with the symbolic journey to get at the author ' s theme. In fact, looking at the journey, the character and the symbolism almost assures this paper will discuss theme. This thesis would address the assignment response for looking at meaning (theme).

Once you have arrived at the thesis, make a brief outline of the examples (including quotes and paraphrases--and page numbers for each) which will support the thesis you have written.

After preparing an optional outline, complete with examples, begin writing the paper.  Always avoid allowing the quotes and paraphrases from the text to take over the paper. You are the critic, and this paper is YOUR formalist interpretation of the novel. Quote only the words necessary to make your point; avoid long passage of diaglor , etc. Also use the specific quotes and paraphrases as support for YOUR ideas and always interpret them for the reader, by showing how the quoted material connects to the point you are making.  Do not expect a reader to interpret a scene or event from the text in the same way that you have.  Always make the connections for the reader.

What is the point of view? 

Point of view is the viewpoint from which you view the setting, see the action, observe the characters, and hear the conversations. Depending on the powers the author has granted this narrator, you may even be able to see inside a character ' s mind, learning what he or she thinks and feels. (. . .ever wish we all had these powers. . .?)

• In first person point of view, "I" and "we" are used. Sometimes the first person narrator is a participant in the story of the novel; sometimes, he/she is an observer. The reliability of first person narrators should be evaluated on the basis of their involvement in the story).
• In third person point of view, "he," "she," and "they" are used.  Third person narrators may be omniscient (all-knowing), offering editorial comments on or an objective report of the characters and situations. Third person narrators may also be limited omniscient, functioning as a sort of central intelligence, though limited by the fact that they are also a character in the story; hence, they usually cannot see into minds, know the future, etc. A note of caution-- It is important to avoid confusing the narrator with the author in reading fiction.

              Ask yourself the following questions in analyzing point of view:

• How does the author ' s choice of point of view affect the reader ' s understanding and feelings about the story?
• Does the point of view in the novel have a particular use?
• What advantages does the author gain by using this viewpoint?
• What changes in the novel would have to be made if the point of view were changed?
• Does the author ' s choice of point of view reveal or illuminate his/her theme?

What is the setting?

Setting is more than just the place and time a story takes place.  Setting also includes the atmosphere:  the social and cultural context of the story. A novel may have many settings or occur at different times; however, each time and place were selected by the author for a particular reason. As yourself the following questions:

• Does the setting play an important role in revealing any element of the novel?
• What information does the setting give me about a situation or a character?
• What influence does the setting have on the characters or their actions?
• Does the setting contribute to the novel ' s theme?

Who are the characters?

Characters are the lifeblood of every novel, and some characters are more important than others. Characters may be round (more like real life with positive and negative traits) or flat (usually stereotypes that symbolize a certain type of person/place/thing). Characters may also be dynamic (changing and growing as the novel ' s events unfold) or static (those who remain unchanged no matter what happens to them).

         In addition, note the following important character types as you read through the novel:

• the protagonist - the main character around whom the novel ' s action revolves (usually). Don ' t be trapped into thinking this character must be human because he/she/it may not   be .
• the antagonist - the important character with whom the protagonist is locked in conflict. The antagonist may be a person or some other animate life form (or a collection of said life forms), a place, or a thing.
• the foil - a minor character (usually) who is offered as a contrast to point out or emphasize a distinctive characteristic of the protagonist.

Ask yourself the following questions about the important characters of the novel?  

4.         Are the character physically described? How detailed are these descriptions, and who gives them to you? ( a narrator? or another character? reliability?)

5.         How do the character ' s words and actions characterize him/her/it?

6.         What is the character ' s motivation for the decisions and actions he/she/it makes?

7.         Are the character ' s actions believable, given the setting and situations in the novel?

8.         How do the characters, their actions and motivations, contribute to the novel ' s theme?

What are symbols?

Symbols extend beyond one-to-one comparison. Be cautious when looking for symbols. A symbol is a like signpost, used and oftentimes repeated at key junctures, that alludes to a larger meaning than the signpost normally would indicate. Symbols can be public or private.

Public symbols have traditional meanings. The rose which is a well-known symbol of love, and the apple is a religious symbol for forbidden knowledge as in the Adam and Eve story. 

Private symbols can mean anything the author wishes them to mean, and this meaning is only apparent from the way in which they are used in the novel. Sometimes authorial and traditional symbols merge having both the traditional meaning, and one that is more closely related to the novel.

Symbols most often reveal characters to us and/or strongly allude to the theme of a novel. Readers of a novel may not always agree on a particular symbol ' s interpretation or even if a particular item is a symbol, so be careful to offer plenty of supporting evidence and reasoning to back up both your selection and interpretation of any symbol. 

What is Theme?

Theme is the point of the book, the author ' s message to us: the readers. Theme is often complex, and thus, it may be difficult for two people out of ten to interpret the same theme.  Though certain readers may see similar themes, most likely the themes they interpret will be different in some way or another to varying degrees.

Hence, theme is a matter of individual interpretation. However, the interpreter must not be too cavalier in assuming he/she can choose any theme whatsoever.  The theme must logically come from the text; therefore, the theme must be supportable by using specific text examples.  Care should be given to interpreting these specific text examples in the context that they are used in the novel.  Care should also be given to avoid "stretching" or "reaching" too far to make a text example fit into our interpretation of the theme.  In addition, the wise reader/interpreter will avoid associating the author or the author ' s life too closely with the main character or his/her life.

Questions to ask to get to the theme: 1. What lesson does the author want me (the reader) to learn from this book? 2. What lesson does the author want me (the reader) to learn about life?

* Important note -   Be doubly sure to state the theme in an arguable statement.  See the following examples:

  In Way of the Peaceful Warrior , Dan Millman writes about living in the present.  (This statement is not a theme; it announces the topic but does not make an arguable statement about it.)

 In Way of the Peaceful Warrior , Dan Millman concludes that living in the present is the key to unreasonable happiness. (This statement gives us the topic "living in the present" and makes a point about it "is the key unreasonable happiness")

• Directories
• General Literary Theory & Criticism Resources
• African Diaspora Studies
• Critical Disability Studies
• Critical Race Theory
• Deconstruction and Poststructuralism
• Ecocriticism
• Feminist Theory
• Indigenous Literary Studies
• Marxist Literary Criticism
• Narratology
• New Historicism
• Postcolonial Theory
• Psychoanalytic Criticism
• Queer and Trans Theory
• Structuralism and Semiotics
• How Do I Use Literary Criticism and Theory?
• Start Your Research
• Research Guides
• University of Washington Libraries
• Library Guides
• UW Libraries
• Literary Research

Literary Research: Formalism

What is formalism.

"Formalism refers to the critical tendency that emerged during the first half of the twentieth century and devoted its attention to concentrating on literature's formal structures in an objective manner... There are three critical movements that represent a formalist approach to literature. The first movement is Russian Formalism , from the 1910s to the 1930s (which, when suppressed by the Soviets in the 1930s, was continued by members of the Prague Linguistic Circle). The second is the New Criticism , which emphasized close reading, dominant in British and American education. The third movement is Structuralism , a dominant trend in mid-century France."

Brief Overviews:

• " Formalism ." New Dictionary of the History of Ideas.
• " Form and Formalism ." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.
• " Russian Formalism ." The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism .
• " New Criticism ." The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism .
• ' Structuralism ."  The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism .

See also: Structuralism and Semiotics

Notable Scholars

Russian Formalism:

Boris Eichenbaum

• In original Russian .

Roman Jakobson

• Selected Writings (8 volumes).

Jakobson, Roman. Language in Literature . Belknap Press, 1987.

Victor Shklovsky

Shklovskiĭ, Viktor. On the Theory of Prose . Translated by Shushan Avagyan, Dalkey Archive Press, 2021.

In original Russian: O teorii prozy ( print ) and eBook .

The Prague School / Prague Linguistic Circle:

René Wellek

• Wellek, René. The Literary Theory and Aesthetics of the Prague School . University of Michigan, 1969.

New Criticism:

Cleanth Brooks

• Searle, Leroy. " Cleanth Brooks ."  Oxford Bibliography  in Literary and Critical Theory, 2021. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780190221911-0112
• Brooks, Cleanth. The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry . Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1956.
• Brooks, Cleanth. Modern Poetry and the Tradition . University of North Carolina Press, 1967.

Kenneth Burke

• Burke, Kenneth. The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action . Louisiana State University Press, 1941.

Northrop Frye

• Collected Works (30 volumes)

I. A. Richards

• Richards, I. A. and C. K. Ogden, C. K. The Meaning of Meaning: a Study of the Influence of Language Upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism . Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1938.
• Richards, I. A. and C. K. Ogden, C. K. The Foundations of Aesthetics.  International Publishers, 1925. ( Print and eBook .)

Introductions & Anthologies

• << Previous: Feminist Theory
• Next: Indigenous Literary Studies >>
• Last Updated: Mar 4, 2024 10:17 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/literaryresearch

Formalist Strategies in Literary Criticism Essay

The fundamental aspect of a formalist critic is to visualize a literary work from the perspective of “ language, structure and tone ” (Meyer 1538). This form of criticism is more about the vibe of literature rather than the interpretation of its structural foundation. This is a new tool in the hands of a writer and the writer can benefit from it immensely as it provides the opportunity to explore a whole new world of literary understanding of insight, sensitivity, perception, and perspective.

If we analyze the approach of a formalist critic we would see that this form of criticism is more dependent on imageries presented in the text rather than the basics of the literature. Its approach appears to be more suited for criticism of poetry rather than novel or academic writings. However, this form of criticism can be beneficial if used properly. Maynard Mack’s “The World of Hamlet” is such an example of the able use of the approach. He interprets the character of Hamlet in a completely new level of understanding, and this is regarded as one of the finest examples of formalist strategies. Again, in Kate Choplin’s story “The Story of an Hour”, with a formalist approach, one can derive the ironic situation of the main character of the story. These are the occasions when a formalist critic can analyze and evaluate the fundamentals of a text without even describing the plot or the characters of the literature.

Thus, it is obvious that the formalist critic depends on the basic vibe of the literature rather than the literature itself. It can be well stated that this form of analysis or criticism is more intricate and sensitive. It can be stated as a responsive method because it directly deals with the inner core of the plot or structure of the literature and not the plot itself with the help of literary tools like ironies or paradoxes. It is also more susceptible in a sense because while dealing with elements like metaphors and symbols, it evokes the intention of the author in a more perceptive manner. It is difficult to reach such an outcome with the help of traditional tools of criticism like plot, settings, or characterizations of the literature.

Thus, it is obvious that the analysis of tone is more sensitive than analysis of plot or criticizing with the help of structure is more insightful than the use of characterizations. Similarly, with the use of language and its evaluation one would be able to present an intuitive vibe that, otherwise, would not evoke through a traditional style of criticism with the help of setting of the text. As a result, Shakespeare’s depiction of Hamlet as the principal avenger of the play along with his dealing with the senses of loss and frailty reaches a new level with the formalist discussion. Similarly, the symbolic equivocations in the story, along with the thematic depiction of renewal and rebirth, set the character of Mrs. Mallard alive in a different aspect.

However, it is not the objective to prove traditional criticism as an obsolete or unhelpful tool, rather it can be stated that the use of Formalist criticism has provided a new perspective of literal analysis that was not present earlier. In conclusion, it can be stated that Formalist criticism and strategies are a special part of literature review, and they just enrich the literature by deploying new avenues of discussion.

Works Cited

Meyer, Michael. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing . St. Martin’s: Bedford, 2008.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, December 31). Formalist Strategies in Literary Criticism. https://ivypanda.com/essays/formalist-strategies-in-literary-criticism/

"Formalist Strategies in Literary Criticism." IvyPanda , 31 Dec. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/formalist-strategies-in-literary-criticism/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Formalist Strategies in Literary Criticism'. 31 December.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Formalist Strategies in Literary Criticism." December 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/formalist-strategies-in-literary-criticism/.

1. IvyPanda . "Formalist Strategies in Literary Criticism." December 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/formalist-strategies-in-literary-criticism/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Formalist Strategies in Literary Criticism." December 31, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/formalist-strategies-in-literary-criticism/.

• Louis Simpson’s The Battle: Formalist Criticism
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: The Novel Reading Analysis
• Analysis of the "Young Goodman Brown"
• Poems Analysis: "Homage to My Hips," "Daystar," and "Dream Deferred"
• Literary Approaches in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia”
• Critical Analysis of Dagoberto Gilb’s “Love in L.A.”
• Racism in Shakespeare's "Othello" and Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
• Analysis Essay on Keats's Poem, Chapman's Homer
• Mary Lavin: Biography of Writer
• Battleship Potemkin
• "Big Fish" Movie and Ovid's "Metamorphoses"
• Racial Inequality in “Cry, the Beloved Country” by Paton
• Steve Williams on Critical Thinking Review
• Science Fiction Literary Analysis
• ‘The Third Policeman’ by O’Brien

• Subject List
• Take a Tour
• For Authors
• Subscriber Services
• Publications
• African American Studies
• African Studies
• American Literature
• Anthropology
• Architecture Planning and Preservation
• Art History
• Atlantic History
• Biblical Studies
• British and Irish Literature
• Childhood Studies
• Chinese Studies
• Cinema and Media Studies
• Communication
• Criminology
• Environmental Science
• Evolutionary Biology
• International Law
• International Relations
• Islamic Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Latino Studies
• Linguistics

Literary and Critical Theory

• Medieval Studies
• Military History
• Political Science
• Public Health
• Renaissance and Reformation
• Social Work
• Urban Studies
• Victorian Literature
• Browse All Subjects

How to Subscribe

• Free Trials

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Stylistics

Introduction, classics and history.

• General Overviews
• General Literary Stylistics
• Nonliterary Stylistics
• Reference Works and Handbooks
• Book Series
• Fiction and Stylistic Narratology
• Film and Drama
• Humorous texts
• Media Style
• Historical Stylistics
• Movements and Historically Based Subgenres
• Translation and the Stylistics of Languages and Cultures
• Theories of Reading
• Stylistics and Psychology
• Developments in Corpus Stylistics
• Corpus Stylistics and Authorial Style
• Metaphor and Irony
• Pragmatic Stylistics
• Multimodal Aspects of Style
• Pedagogical Stylistics
• Export Citations
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Stylistics by Lesley Jeffries LAST MODIFIED: 26 July 2017 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780190221911-0048

Stylistics is the study of textual meaning. Historically, it arose from the late-19th- and early-20th-century Russian formalist approach to literary meaning, which endeavored to identify the textual triggers of certain literary effects from their structures. As a result, for much of its history, stylistics has been concerned with the style, and consequent meaning, of literary works. However, the burgeoning of modern linguistics in the early part of the 20th century and the simultaneous rise of mass media (newspapers, radio, and television in the first instance) led stylisticians toward two new concerns. First, they wanted to establish whether there was anything unique about the language of literature that differentiated it absolutely from other language use. For this project, new insights from descriptive linguistics were crucial as an objective and rigorous way of describing—and comparing—texts in terms of their style. The eventual consensus that developed from such work was that there is no absolute division, in linguistic usage, between literary and nonliterary texts, though genres of all kinds (including nonliterary genres) may have stylistic preferences that help to identify them. Second, stylisticians wanted to find out how style affected such important issues as political and social change, through the texts encountered by citizens in their daily lives. The result was the adaptation and application of stylistic analysis to nonliterary texts for the purpose of highlighting ideology—particularly hidden ideology—rather than for the purpose of explaining aesthetic effects. This development ultimately gave rise to what is now called “critical discourse analysis,” though this term now encompasses many studies that are minimally linguistic in their concerns. The initial enthusiasm for the insights that linguistics could bring to literary study, together with some of the principal notions from Russian formalism, such as “defamiliarization,” produced stylistics’ early theoretical core notions, such as foregrounding, external and internal deviation, and parallelism. These continue to be central to much stylistic scholarship, and for this reason it has not been possible to group texts relating to foregrounding and deviation together here, as they also range widely across the other categories necessary to map out the field. It is also worth noting that the increasing use of computational methodologies borrowed from corpus linguistics means that today it is possible to examine not only foregrounded, but also background features of style. Meanwhile, stylistics has continued to follow the “new” subdisciplines of the field (sociolinguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, etc.), as well as developing connections with other disciplines, notably psychology, to develop a range of more subtle tools of analysis to understand how the texts that are its central concern make meaning.

It is generally true that each item in this list could have been categorized differently, but an attempt has been made to identify the publications that have most clearly made an impact on thinking about style that continues to the present day. These debates include the dissatisfaction of literary scholars with the lack of clarity of literary criticism where it has no shared framework of analysis or descriptive language, as seen in Ehrlich 1965 , an introduction to stylistics first published in 1955; the question of whether advances in rigor and systematicity tend to produce analysis that is lacking in understanding of textual/literary meaning, in particular the many critical reviews that followed Sebeok 1960 ; the two parallel threads of a developing stylistics, arising from literary criticism on the one hand (as in Epstein 1978 ), and from linguistics, on the other (as in Sebeok 1960 and Fowler 1971 ). Other entries here, such as Fowler 1971 ; Fowler 1986 , merge the two approaches more completely, and, in the case of Leech and Short 2007 (first published 1981), have been judged by peers to have made the largest contribution to the discipline in the last twenty-five years, as determined by the Poetics and Linguistics Association.

Crystal, David, and Derek Davy. Investigating English Style . London: Longman, 1966.

An early, and at the time unique, application of linguistics to the study of stylistic differences between nonliterary texts. Crystal and Davy’s aim was a practical and systematic method for identifying textual style, based on regularity of occurrence of certain linguistic features in texts, linked to (situational and other) external features.

Ehrlich, Victor. Russian Formalism: History, Doctrine . 2d ed. The Hague: Mouton, 1965.

A critical but balanced study of the formalist origins of stylistics, this book traces the impetus for a new discipline with objectivity and rigor resulting from the impatience of literary scholars with “impressionistic criticism” and introduces the Russian formalists through the work of its most distinguished pioneer, Roman Jakobson. First published 1955.

Enkvist, Nils Erik. Linguistic Stylistics . The Hague: Mouton, 1973.

DOI: 10.1515/9783111348926

Enkvist showcases the methods and techniques of stylistics that drew most strongly on new insights from linguistics. His emphasis was on systematicity and transparency.

Epstein, E. L. Language and Style . London: Methuen, 1978.

This book attempts to use linguistic description to address the question of whether there is a qualitative difference between personal (i.e., unique) style and public patterning of language. This ambition appears implicitly linked to the quest for a definition of literary and particularly individual author style as separate from “everyday” language, but it has been superseded by a more holistic view of style as being on a continuum between genre and individual author.

Fowler, Roger. The Languages of Literature . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971.

A collection of papers republished from elsewhere that attempt to make the case for a linguistic approach to literature, though often reviewed negatively in failing to adequately illustrate with examples of analysis, beyond those dealing with meter. The collection reprints both sides of Fowler’s argument with F. W. Bateson about the value of linguistic criticism.

Fowler, Roger. Linguistic Criticism . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

This is one of the ground-breaking books of early stylistics which introduces the precision and systematicity of linguistic approaches to literary meaning. It explains in a clear style how the analytical insights of linguistics can illuminate the reader’s understanding of literary works and it illustrates from poems, plays and fiction. Whilst now relatively old, this remains a very good introduction to the field for readers new to stylistics. First published 1971.

Freeman, D. C. Essays in Modern Stylistics . London: Methuen, 1981.

This collection of articles demonstrates a range of applications of linguistics to the style and interpretation of literature. It includes studies of individual authors, such as the poets John Keats and William Blake, as well as essays that consider the place of stylistics alongside literary studies and linguistics.

Leech, Geoffrey, and Mick Short. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose . 2d ed. London: Pearson Education, 2007.

Like many stylistics books, this one is partly aimed at students, though it also breaks new theoretical ground, particularly in relation to speech presentation and demonstrates the accuracy with which linguistically trained scholars can describe features of literary works. The second edition has new material. First published 1981.

Lemon, L. T., and M. J. Reis, eds. Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays . 2d ed. University of Nebraska Press, 2012.

This reissued book collects together four of the most influential essays by Russian formalist scholars from the early 20th century—work that laid down the foundations of what we would today call “stylistics.” The essays include two by Viktor Shklovsky, one that introduces defamiliarization, and one that puts forward a theory of narrative through analysis of Tristram Shandy . The others are Boris Tomashevsky’s “Thematics” (1925), which looks at the components of stories, and Boris Eichenbaum’s “The Theory of the ‘Formal Method’” (1927), which defends formalism from various criticisms.

Sebeok, Thomas Albert, ed. Style in Language . Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1960.

The papers and some of the discussion from a gathering at Indiana University in 1958. Participants came from a range of disciplines, including psychology and anthropology, as well as linguistics and literary studies, and the volume includes contributions from two of the discipline’s most renowned scholars, Roman Jakobson and I. A. Richards.

back to top

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login .

Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here .

• About Literary and Critical Theory »
• Meet the Editorial Board »
• Achebe, Chinua
• Adorno, Theodor
• Aesthetics, Post-Soul
• Affect Studies
• Afrofuturism
• Agamben, Giorgio
• Anzaldúa, Gloria E.
• Apel, Karl-Otto
• Appadurai, Arjun
• Badiou, Alain
• Baudrillard, Jean
• Belsey, Catherine
• Benjamin, Walter
• Bettelheim, Bruno
• Bhabha, Homi K.
• Biopower, Biopolitics and
• Blanchot, Maurice
• Bloom, Harold
• Bourdieu, Pierre
• Brecht, Bertolt
• Brooks, Cleanth
• Caputo, John D.
• Chakrabarty, Dipesh
• Conversation Analysis
• Cosmopolitanism
• Creolization/Créolité
• Crip Theory
• Critical Theory
• Cultural Materialism
• de Certeau, Michel
• de Man, Paul
• de Saussure, Ferdinand
• Deconstruction
• Deleuze, Gilles
• Derrida, Jacques
• Dollimore, Jonathan
• Du Bois, W.E.B.
• Eagleton, Terry
• Eco, Umberto
• Ecocriticism
• English Colonial Discourse and India
• Environmental Ethics
• Fanon, Frantz
• Feminism, Transnational
• Foucault, Michel
• Frankfurt School
• Freud, Sigmund
• Frye, Northrop
• Genet, Jean
• Girard, René
• Global South
• Goldberg, Jonathan
• Gramsci, Antonio
• Greimas, Algirdas Julien
• Grief and Comparative Literature
• Guattari, Félix
• Habermas, Jürgen
• Haraway, Donna J.
• Hartman, Geoffrey
• Hawkes, Terence
• Hemispheric Studies
• Hermeneutics
• Hillis-Miller, J.
• Holocaust Literature
• Human Rights and Literature
• Humanitarian Fiction
• Hutcheon, Linda
• Žižek, Slavoj
• Imperial Masculinity
• Irigaray, Luce
• Jameson, Fredric
• JanMohamed, Abdul R.
• Johnson, Barbara
• Kagame, Alexis
• Kolodny, Annette
• Kristeva, Julia
• Lacan, Jacques
• Laclau, Ernesto
• Lacoue-Labarthe, Philippe
• Laplanche, Jean
• Leavis, F. R.
• Levinas, Emmanuel
• Levi-Strauss, Claude
• Literature, Dalit
• Lonergan, Bernard
• Lotman, Jurij
• Lukács, Georg
• Lyotard, Jean-François
• Metz, Christian
• Morrison, Toni
• Mouffe, Chantal
• Nancy, Jean-Luc
• Neo-Slave Narratives
• New Historicism
• New Materialism
• Partition Literature
• Peirce, Charles Sanders
• Philosophy of Theater, The
• Postcolonial Theory
• Posthumanism
• Postmodernism
• Post-Structuralism
• Psychoanalytic Theory
• Queer Medieval
• Race and Disability
• Rancière, Jacques
• Ransom, John Crowe
• Reader Response Theory
• Rich, Adrienne
• Richards, I. A.
• Ronell, Avital
• Rosenblatt, Louse
• Said, Edward
• Settler Colonialism
• Socialist/Marxist Feminism
• Stiegler, Bernard
• Structuralism
• Theatre of the Absurd
• Thing Theory
• Tolstoy, Leo
• Tomashevsky, Boris
• Translation
• Transnationalism in Postcolonial and Subaltern Studies
• Virilio, Paul
• Warren, Robert Penn
• White, Hayden
• Wittig, Monique
• World Literature
• Zimmerman, Bonnie
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility

Powered by:

• [66.249.64.20|195.216.135.184]
• 195.216.135.184

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

FORMALISM (also known as NEW CRITICISM) A Basic Approach to Reading and Understanding Literature

Formalist theory has dominated the American literary scene for most of the twentieth century, and it has retained its great influence in many academic quarters. Its practitioners advocate methodical and systematic readings of texts. The major premises of New Criticism include: "art for art's sake," "content = form," and "texts exist in and for themselves." These premises lead to the development of reading strategies that isolate and objectify the overt structures of texts as well as authorial techniques and language usage. With these isolated and objective readings, New Criticism aims to classify, categorize, and catalog works according to their formal attributes. Along the way, New Criticism wants to pull out and discuss any universal truths that literary works might hold concerning the human condition. These truths are considered by New Critics to be static, enduring, and applicable to all humanity. Leading new critics include I.A. Richards, Cleanth Brooks, Northrop Frye, John Crowe Ransom, T.S. Eliot, and Roman Jacobsen. These thinkers consider literature to be a language game in which communication becomes semi-transparent. They reject Impressionism, moral tones, and philological studies, and believe that written works should work mostly on the intellect. The rise of New Criticism coincides with that of modern literature, probably because of the popularity of the "art for art's sake" maxim. Formalists value poetry rich in ambiguity, irony, and intention, and want to make literary criticism a science. This last projection introduces the concept of expert readers into interpretive theory. Current theorists tend to criticize Formalism for this and other symptoms of narrow-mindedness; still, they cannot deny that New Criticism has left a lasting impression on American literary scholarship. Its terminology continues as the basis for most literary education in the United States, and other critical approaches to reading and critiquing literature depend upon readers' familiarity with these terms to articulate their findings.

Related Papers

afi enyo nutakor

Mohammed AlFuadi

The article deals with the interaction of formalism as a trend in language and literature studies, on the one hand, and a teaching method , a technique of teaching to understand and investigate literary text proceeding from its structure and content, on the other hand. One of the main principles is dialogism (M. Bakhtin) that creates the coeducation between the writer and the reader. Thus, the process becomes bilateral, or even multilateral and it includes criticism on both parts, a teacher and a student-reader as they are interpreting a literary text. Key words: literary criticism, formalism, dialogism, coeducation, readerly, reader-response theory, literalism.

Bill Benzon

At the most abstract philosophical level the cosmos is best conceptualized as containing various Realms of Being interacting with one another. Each Realm contains a broad class of objects sharing the same general body of processes and laws. In such a conception the human world consists of many different Realms of Being, with more emerging as human cultures become more sophisticated and internally differentiated. Common Sense knowledge forms one Realm while Literary experience is another. Being immersed in a literary work is not at all the same as going about one's daily life. Formal Literary Criticism is yet another Realm, distinct from both Common Sense and Literary Experience. Literary Criticism is in the process of differentiating into two different Realms, that of Ethical Criticism, concerned with matters of value, and that of Naturalist Criticism, concerned with the objective study of psychological, social, and historical processes.

Urvi Sharma

Martin Coyle

Kafkas Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

Aydın Görmez

Many opinions have been discussed about the place of literature in society so far. The overwhelming majority is of the opinion that literature is a mirror of society. On the other hand, Formalism, as a literary theory, argues that the purpose of literature is literariness. Therefore, it is accepted as a rebellion against the understanding of literature dating back to the 1900s. Instead, it is suggested that a literary work should be studied as text-oriented. Furthermore, Formalists argue that the language of the work should be examined in terms of its literary elements, that is intrinsic, rather than extrinsic. That is the reason why they are criticized by other literary critics focusing on biographical, sociological, psychological, religious or historical issues. Their approach draws on those of Ferdinand de Saussure. Combining the views of many theorists, they make text-oriented literary studies. Formalism is often confused with official or legal correspondence. The reason why for...

New Literary History

Robert S Lehman

Sathish Kumar

Charles Palermo

To define the domain of literary criticism would require some contentious choices and some contended definitions—about what the “literary” is and about what kinds of interventions can be included as “criticism.” The aim of this entry is not to trace the whole history of literary criticism. Nor should it be assumed that modern literary criticism is naturally or necessarily academic. The following discussion will address such matters and operate with such definitions and omissions, always mindful that doing so does not necessarily settle anything.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1007/thumbnail.jp

rasol jamali

RELATED PAPERS

Nucleus (Austin, Tex.)

Luisa Politano

Dongqiang Yang

IEEE Access

Tuleen Boutaleb

Nicolás Foix

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Gülgün Şengör

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH

Majid Rezaei Basiri

Theory of Computing Systems

Elvira Mayordomo

Literacia, Media e Cidadania

Catia Resende

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

Muhammad Aslam

Technomedia Journal

Mohammad Annas

Mouwafac Sidaoui

Adolfo Alejandro Díaz Pérez , Álvaro A Centeno Pérez

Bahar Firoozabadi

Leukemia &amp; Lymphoma

Javier Bolaños Meade

Danica Vasiljević-Prodanović

Tania Sanchez Rodriguez

BMC Public Health

Revista Urologia Colombiana

Juan Fernando Uribe Arcila

Theophilos Papadimitriou

Mathematical Research Letters

Peter Koroteev

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science

abdulsalam kudid

South African Medical Journal

Frederick Raal

Journal of Clinical Medicine

Vlad Ploscaru

Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation

Edite Pereira

تحقیقات علوم چوب و کاغذ ایران

Amir Nourbakhsh

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Architecture and Design
• Asian and Pacific Studies
• Business and Economics
• Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Computer Sciences
• Cultural Studies
• Engineering
• General Interest
• Geosciences
• Industrial Chemistry
• Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Library and Information Science, Book Studies
• Life Sciences
• Linguistics and Semiotics
• Literary Studies
• Materials Sciences
• Mathematics
• Social Sciences
• Sports and Recreation
• Theology and Religion
• Publish your article
• The role of authors
• Promoting your article
• Abstracting & indexing
• Publishing Ethics
• Why publish with De Gruyter
• How to publish with De Gruyter
• Our book series
• Our subject areas
• Your digital product at De Gruyter
• Contribute to our reference works
• Product information
• Tools & resources
• Product Information
• Promotional Materials
• Orders and Inquiries
• FAQ for Library Suppliers and Book Sellers
• Repository Policy
• Free access policy
• Open Access agreements
• Database portals
• For Authors
• Customer service
• People + Culture
• Journal Management
• How to join us
• Working at De Gruyter
• Mission & Vision
• De Gruyter Foundation
• De Gruyter Ebound
• Our Responsibility
• Partner publishers

Your purchase has been completed. Your documents are now available to view.

Chapter Eight — Formalist Criticism: Its Principles and Limits

From the book language as symbolic action.

• Kenneth Burke
• X / Twitter

Supplementary Materials

Please login or register with De Gruyter to order this product.

Chapters in this book (30)

Literary Theory Essay Sample: Examples of Formalism

Formalism is a branch of literary theory that became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century. It has evolved as a reaction to the traditional position on the priority of content over form. Formalists argued that the content of literature changes due to historical causes, while the forms of art have historical stability. For example, novel structure has not significantly changed in several centuries. In the following literary theory essay the author has shown several examples of formalism in literature.

What Are Some Good Examples of Formalism in Literature? Formalism is a method of criticism which “examines a literary text or artwork through its aesthetic composition such as form, language, technique and style” (Formalism, 2018). Formalism began in Russia during the 20th century by a group of linguists who desired a straightforward analysis to text examination. Rather than incorporating societal, historical, or cultural influences into a critique of a literary work, proponents of formalism believe in examining the work as it is. Although outside influences can improve one’s understanding of a composition, there must first be a focus on the composition itself. One story that is closely examined in a formalist fashion is Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. A man named Gregor Samsa is suddenly transformed into a bug. His “abrupt and unexplained transformation is juxtaposed with a lot of really mundane day-to-day details” (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). From a close reading, one can get a glimpse of the loneliness that Gregor feels on a daily basis and the transformation could be a literal manifestation of Gregor’s alienation from society. Another literary work that can be closely examined is Translations from the Natural World by Les Murray. In this poetry book, “Murray makes birds, cows, bats, and other favorites of the animal kingdom talk” (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). The structure, language, and literary devices presented in each poem provide a unique way in which Murray can express a different emotion. By closely analyzing the text, one can appreciate the artistry of his words while also understanding the importance of viewing life through a different lens. Academia has long relied on a formalist approach to literary work. Students are first encouraged to study the intricacies of the text before integrating the external influences. To analyze a piece of art, one must first be acquainted with the way it is presented. Only then can it be appreciated for what it is, rather than how it relates to broader context. Works Cited Formalism. (2018, January 9). Retrieved January 9, 2018, from http://blogs.bcu.ac.uk/virtualtheorist/formalism/ Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Metamorphosis. Retrieved January 9, 2018, from https://www.shmoop.com/metamorphosis/ Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Formalism Texts – Translations from the Natural World by Les Murray (1992). Retrieved January 9, 2018, from https://www.shmoop.com/formalism/translations-from-the-natural-world-text.html

Do You Have Troubles With Literary Theory Essay? Ask EssaySeek for Help!

During literature classes you can be asked to write a literary theory essay. If you have no ideas or don’t know what topic to choose, read some samples that can give you some great ideas. This writing may be shorter than you are expected to write, so make sure to add more details or viewpoints in the essay. All samples on the EssaySeek blog were completed by expert writers, and we are glad to share them with you. Please, remember that the material on this website is under copyright protection and any copied text in your work may be considered plagiarism. Check other samples on the blog, as you never know where you will find essential information.

2 Responses to Literary Theory Essay Sample: Examples of Formalism

Thanks for the info! Borrowed for my essay 😉

Great sample though.

Leave a Comment: Cancel reply

Formalist Criticism of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

Introduction, point of view, works cited.

In the short story “A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner, the Old South is portrayed through the lens of symbolism. Hence, the emotional response of the people, who witnessed the tragic events stemming from the main character’s unrequited love, which is unacceptable for her position, can be examined by assessing the principal components of the matter. The most critical factors include the presentation of information by observers, the atmosphere of the house, the individuals involved in the events, and the progression of the author’s thoughts. Therefore, the analysis of this piece while adopting formalist techniques can help better understand the social climate of the time demonstrated by Faulkner by including symbolism significant for the setting, characters, plot, and perspective.

One of the considerations which allow readers to delve into the feelings and thoughts of the people in this story is the point of view, which is the description of events in the first person. Thus, the author writes, “we did not say she was crazy then,” and “we remembered all the young men her father had driven away,” thereby clarifying the significance of the citizens in this story (Faulkner 4). By doing so, he highlights the importance of the observers’ standpoint as they are viewed as the source of credible information regarding the events in the life of Miss Emily. Also, this method of describing the tragedy in the woman’s house confirms the crucial role of people’s judgment in the decisions made by the main character. The woman, which was apparently ill, was guided by her perceptions of visible appropriateness in order to avoid being scrutinized by others (Faulkner 5). In this way, this point of view draws attention to the population’s social norms instead of individual attitudes.

The selected point of view is complemented by the physical setting in “A Rose For Emily,” which allows contrasts the main character’s isolation and exclusion from societal affairs. The two main locations used in the story are the woman’s house and Jefferson Town, and they provide the contrast between Emily and other citizens (Faulkner 1). They are essential for demonstrating the conflicting views of the main character and others. Thus, the former is presented by the house’s melancholic but powerful atmosphere, which is combined with the fact that no visitors are allowed (Khrais 124). In turn, the latter is seen in the modern South with new values and advanced structures, such as pavements, which is opposed to the old times to which Emily belongs (Khrais 123). These two settings effectively reflect the mood of the two sides while creating the overall environment for the narrative.

In the story, the main characters are Emily Grierson, her lover Homer Barron, Emily’s father, Mr. Grierson, their servant Tobe, and Judge Stevens, and only the former two are described in detail. Emily is depicted as “a small, fat woman in black,” who once was slender and gentle (Faulkner 2). Homer is presented as “a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face,” which is the exact opposite of the descendent of an aristocratic family (Faulkner 5). Their differences are visible both in appearance and character, and they help highlight the importance of social customs of the time (Bai et al. 614). Also, the fact that others are not clearly determined, one might conclude the sufficiency of Emily and Homer for depicting the conflict.

The plot of the story is arranged in such a way that the reader sees the events of the past from the perspective of the present. This piece begins with the funeral of Emily Grierson, which is an interesting occasion for the town since the woman is associated with the Old South (Faulkner 1). In the continuation of the narrative, the structure is non-linear since all the memories about this person are mixed with her occasional involvement in societal affairs (Faulkner 5). These sources of information about the woman are combined with her criticism in the past due to the fact that her behavior was different from the citizens’ expectations. Hence, “poor Emily” was judged for selecting an inappropriate partner (Faulkner 6). This way of portraying the events adds to the complexity of people’s perceptions depending on their positions in society and, consequently, exacerbates the conflict.

In the story, the symbols, which transmit a larger meaning, are the town, the house, and the rose. First, the Southern culture is shown in the change of Jefferson town, which is transformed under the influence of the emerging values substituting old perceptions (Bai et al. 613). Therefore, it depicts the collision of the past and the present and serves as the background for the main events. Second, the house of Emily symbolizes the decay of aristocracy and the traditional views on marriage, family, and other norms (Bai et al. 613). It is thereby opposed to the town and used as the characteristic of the previously existing systems. Third, the rose indicates the pursuit of happiness by the main character, who failed to achieve it since, like a flower, it is a temporary phenomenon (Bai et al. 614). Thus, these symbols help create the necessary mood for perceiving the events of the story.

The central theme of this piece is the effects of societal norms on a person’s life regardless of the time. From this point of view, Emily’s fate was dictated by the condemnation of her relationship with Homer when she was a young woman, as well as the curiosity of citizens concerning her house and living conditions in general (Krebs 1). The former factor partially led to the tragic death of the man, whereas the latter circumstances contributed to the intention to conceal the crime in an unexpected manner. The idea of the interdependency of people’s interests in others’ affairs and old social customs is close to the author since Faulkner was obsessed with the past (Rollyson 18). This fact explains his intention to write a piece that reflects on the conditions required to be followed strictly by the previous generations.

To summarize, the examination of the components of the story “A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner, shows the society of the Old South and its transformation. This stance is supposed to be shared by the readers as the description in the first person is aimed at involving them in the matter. The setting represented by the house and the town corresponds to the conflict between the woman from the past and the present-day citizens, and the particular attention to Emily and Homer contributes to this comparison. The non-linear structure of the plot demonstrates the complexity of the subject, and the symbols underpin the idea of transforming societal norms, which, nevertheless, affect everyone’s lives.

Bai, Xiaojun, Xiaotong Zhang, and Yihui Li. “An Analysis of Emily’s Characters in A Rose for Emily from the Perspective of Narration.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research , vol. 11, no. 4, 2020, pp. 611-615.

Faulkner, William. A Rose For Emily. Perfection Learning, 1990.

Khrais, Sura M. “An Eyesore Among Eyesores”: The Significance of Physical Setting in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature , vol. 6, no. 6, 2017, pp. 123-126.

Krebs, Sarah. “Weather-Worn and House-Hidden.” English 100 & 200 Conference, 2019, Western Kentucky University . Web.

Rollyson, Carl. The Life of William Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead, 1897-1934. University of Virginia Press, 2020.

Cite this paper

• Chicago (N-B)
• Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2023, March 15). Formalist Criticism of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. https://studycorgi.com/formalist-criticism-of-a-rose-for-emily-by-william-faulkner/

"Formalist Criticism of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner." StudyCorgi , 15 Mar. 2023, studycorgi.com/formalist-criticism-of-a-rose-for-emily-by-william-faulkner/.

StudyCorgi . (2023) 'Formalist Criticism of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner'. 15 March.

1. StudyCorgi . "Formalist Criticism of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner." March 15, 2023. https://studycorgi.com/formalist-criticism-of-a-rose-for-emily-by-william-faulkner/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "Formalist Criticism of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner." March 15, 2023. https://studycorgi.com/formalist-criticism-of-a-rose-for-emily-by-william-faulkner/.

StudyCorgi . 2023. "Formalist Criticism of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner." March 15, 2023. https://studycorgi.com/formalist-criticism-of-a-rose-for-emily-by-william-faulkner/.

This paper, “Formalist Criticism of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner”, was written and voluntary submitted to our free essay database by a straight-A student. Please ensure you properly reference the paper if you're using it to write your assignment.

Before publication, the StudyCorgi editorial team proofread and checked the paper to make sure it meets the highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, fact accuracy, copyright issues, and inclusive language. Last updated: March 28, 2023 .

If you are the author of this paper and no longer wish to have it published on StudyCorgi, request the removal . Please use the “ Donate your paper ” form to submit an essay.

Jump to navigation

Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference - Cleveland, OH (October 24-26)

Announcing the 47th Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

October 24-26, 2024

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

Conference theme: “Shakespeare and the Mind”

The study of Shakespeare has long informed modern and contemporary understandings of the mind. From Sigmund Freud’s influential account of the Oedipus complex in Hamlet to Stanley Cavell’s readings of Shakespeare’s tragedies as interrogations of epistemological skepticism to the recurring focus on Shakespeare in interdisciplinary subfields like cognitive literary studies and the neurohumanities, Shakespeare’s plays and poems continue to impact the sense of what, and how, we know about ourselves. At the same time, some communities have felt excluded from these conversations, reflecting how readings of Shakespeare have also influenced troubling assumptions about a “normative” mind.

The OVSC welcomes papers and roundtables on all topics related to a general theme of Shakespeare and the mind. How did the early moderns conceptualize thought, emotion, and instinct—and how does Shakespeare’s corpus reflect or resist those models? How has the renaissance influenced modern and contemporary understandings of thought, insight, or the unconscious? Do Shakespeare’s texts—or their adaptations or staging—provide any value for clinicians or therapists treating patients suffering from trauma or psychiatric disorders? In short, what did Shakespeare think about the act of thinking?

We welcome papers and projects taking any number of critical approaches, be they formalist, historicist, or theoretical. Projects focused on Shakespeare’s reception, adaptation, and performance, as well as papers focused on Shakespeare’s contemporaries (i.e., other early modern authors, artists, and thinkers) are also welcome. We especially encourage papers that adopt an interdisciplinary approach. The conference is open to graduate students for regular sessions and to undergraduate students for roundtable seminars. Graduate students and undergraduate students are encouraged to submit papers for the M. Rick Smith Memorial Prize and the Julia R. Lupton Graduate Prize. Papers presented at the OVSC may also be submitted for inclusion in our proceedings journal,  Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference.

Plenary Speakers:

Richard Strier, Frank L. Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago. Author of Shakespearean Issues: Agency, Skepticism, and Other Puzzles  (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), The Unrepentant Renaissance from Petrarch to Shakespeare to Milton  (University of Chicago Press, 2011), Resistant Structures: Particularity, Radicalism, and Renaissance Texts (University of California Press, 1995), and Love Known: Theology and Experience in George Herbert's Poetry  (University of Chicago Press, 1983).

Heather Hirschfeld, Kenneth Curry Professor of English, the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. Author of The End of Satisfaction: Drama and Repentance in the Age of Shakespeare (Cornell University Press, 2014) and Joint Enterprises: Collaborative Drama and the Institutionalization of the English Renaissance Theater (University of Massachusetts Press, 2004).

Please submit 200-300 word abstracts by September 9, 2024 to [email protected] . The OVSC also offers an Early Decision option, with the deadline of June 10, 2024. Please refer to the OVSC's website for more information:  https://www.ovshakes.org/

Help | Advanced Search

Computer Science > Machine Learning

Title: fip: a fixed-point approach for causal generative modeling.

Abstract: Modeling true world data-generating processes lies at the heart of empirical science. Structural Causal Models (SCMs) and their associated Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) provide an increasingly popular answer to such problems by defining the causal generative process that transforms random noise into observations. However, learning them from observational data poses an ill-posed and NP-hard inverse problem in general. In this work, we propose a new and equivalent formalism that do not require DAGs to describe them, viewed as fixed-point problems on the causally ordered variables, and show three important cases where they can be uniquely recovered given the topological ordering (TO). To the best of our knowledge, we obtain the most general recovery results when the TO is known. Based on our theoretical findings, we design a two-stage causal generative model that first infers the causal order from observations in a zero-shot manner, thus by-passing the search, and then learns the generative fixed-point SCM on the ordered variables. To infer TOs from observations, we propose to amortize the learning of TOs on generated datasets by sequentially predicting the leaves of graphs seen during training. To learn fixed-point SCMs, we design a transformer-based architecture that exploits a new attention mechanism enabling the modeling of causal structures, and show that this parameterization is consistent with our formalism. Finally, we conduct an extensive evaluation of each method individually, and show that when combined, our model outperforms various baselines on generated out-of-distribution problems.

Submission history

Access paper:.

• HTML (experimental)
• Other Formats

References & Citations

• Google Scholar
• Semantic Scholar

BibTeX formatted citation

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Code, data and media associated with this article, recommenders and search tools.

• Institution

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs .