New Criticism/ Formalism

Based on the view that a work of art or text is a concrete object that can be analyzed to discover its meaning independent of its author's intention or the emotional state or values of either its author or reader.

Implied in the term is a close and detailed analysis of the text itself to arrive at an interpretation without referring to historical, authorial, or cultural concerns.

Used by critics who rely on a work's form or structure to determine its meaning.

A work of art is an object in its own right that can be analyzed without referring to any extratextual evidence or source such as history, politics, or sociology.

The condition of being a text as such and not another kind of work or document. Sometimes refers to the process of understanding an event, object, or phenomenological field as if it were to be read as text. (It is a system of organized and interpretative signs).

To eliminate emotions and feelings and focus on the text and facts.

Examines elements outside of the text to uncover the text meaning. (i.e. cultural background, historical background).

A cultural artifact of some sort. It can exist without being written down and are typically characterized by IMAGINATION, EMOTION, SIGNIFICANT MEANING, SENSE IMPRESSIONS, and CONCRETE LANGUAGE.

The effects produced in and on an individual when contemplating a work of art.

A term used by New Critics to suggest that a work of art is not equal to its paraphrase. (Ex.

: A poem is not the same as its paraphrased version because the paraphrased version will miss the poem's uniqueness)

Used by New Critics to refer to the existence of a text. For New Critics, a text exists in its own right as an autonomous object that can be analyzed.

Instructiveness in a work. One purpose of which is to give guidance, esp. in moral, ethical, or religious matters.

(A didactic work is one that has its ultimate effect meaning or a result outside itself.)

Used by New Critics to refer to what they believe is the erroneous assumption that the interpretation of a literary work can be equated to the author's stated or implied intentions or private meanings. Claiming that such external information is irrelevant to ascertaining a text's meaning.

Used by New Critics to explain that a reader's emotional response to a text is neither important nor equivalent to its interpretation. Believing those who evaluate a work of art on the basis of its emotional effect on its perceiver to be incorrect, New Critics assert that the affective fallacy confuses what a poem is and what a poem does.

Freytag's Pyramid is an analysis of dramatic action.

It explains how enticing moment, exposition, rising action, complication, climax, reversal, falling action, catastrophe, and moment of last suspense all relate in a tragedy.

Tension is a word that is also used interchangeable with conflict. It designates the oppositions or conflicts operating with a text.

A statement that, despite sound reasoning from acceptable evidences, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.

By using elements of the "sublime", the critic will instantly know whether a new poem is good or bad. If a critic has mastered the "masters", they themselves will be touchstones, instantly knowing if a work is good.

(Matthew Arnold)

Establishing a version of a work that is as close as possible to what the author wrote or intended to be its final for the purpose of giving the public an authorized version of that work.

Wording that suggests more than one meaning or interpretation. It calls up more than a single meaning; is able to add to the thematic complexity in a work.

A figure of speech involving a "turn" or change of sense. New Criticism regards poetry as a special kind of use of language, however, certain tropes (irony and paradox), began to enjoy an unprecedented measure of prestige.

A means of communicating feeling.

Patterns of objects, actions, events, or situations that can serve effectively to awaken in the reader an emotional response without being a direct statement of that subjective notion (T.S. Eliot).

The study of the origins of words or of a specific word.

A statement of situation in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is literally said, done, or expected. (Socratic irony, dramatic irony, cosmic irony)

This type of poetry was used by 17th century writers.

These men formed a school in the sense of employing similar methods and of revolting against the Elizabethan poetry, especially the Petrarchan Conceit. These men tended toward psychological analysis of the emotions of love and religion. They typically used techniques such as obscurity, roughness, and strain. These techniques gave them bad reputations in the Neoclassical Period.

The study of theories.

The coherence of the elements of a work that creates a sense of an organic whole.

It is created when all the various parts and techniques of a work interrelate with each other to make a statement. This was utilized by the Formalists.

A general descriptive theory of literature. It does not refer solely to poetry or verse alone. Instead, it tries to define and describe the elements that create a work's "literariness".

(Plato)

A school of criticism that is popular in Russia and Czechoslovakia in the early 20th century. This school worked to establish a scientific basis for explaining how literary devices produce aesthetic effects. These people advocated examination of the linguistic and structural elements of a work, rejecting methods or knowledge from other fields of study as extraneous to literary scholarship.

A term with various archaic or poetic meanings, including a heraldic or emblematic design.

It can be something that is devised for dramatic presentation.

A term that designates the organization of the elementary parts of a work of art in relation to its total effect. The form of the ideas refers to the organization or structure of thought in the work.

This term is the English rendering of Russian ostranenie, used by Sklovskij and other Russian Formalists to indicate a property of great art, which instead of representing an outside reality by transparent means, is directed at the human means of perceiving and communicating information.

This term is utilized by Russian Formalists and translates as "making strange".

Through literary techniques such as syntax and rhyme, poetic diction or language has the capacity to "make strange" familiar words, thereby causing readers to reexamine and experience afresh a word, image, or symbol.

A term utilized by Russian Formalists to show poetic language's ability to make strange the familiar, thereby causing the readers of a text to reexamine the word or image to experience it anew.

The raw material of the story that can be considered somewhat akin to the author's working outline that contains a story's chronological series of events. (Russian Formalist Victor Shklovsky)

Also known as plot, consists of all the literary devices a writer uses to transform the story into plot.

By using such literary devises (digressions, surprises, disruption, etc.) the writer alters the fabula, making the text a work of literature that now has the potential "to make strange" the language or the text and render a fresh view of the text's language, the reader's world, or both. (Shklovsky)

A term that is utilized by Russian Formalists to mean a unified collection of various literary devices and conventions that can be objectively analyzed.

Also known as applied criticism, this criticism applies the theories and tenets of theoretical criticism to a particular work of art.

The critic defines the standard taste and explains, evaluates, or justifies a particular text.

An agent or element that causes, but is not affected by a reaction.

Used by the Russian Formalists to refer to the language used in a work of art. Such language calls attention to itself as language, thus foregrounding itself.

Intentional is what the author implies and affective is the impact it has on the reader.

Irony, similes, metaphors, connotation, and denotation.

zit designates the oppositions or conflicts operating with a text.

A pattern of objects, actions, events, or situation that can serve effectively to awaken in the reader an emotional response without a direct statement.

-John Crowe-Rene Welleck-William K.

Wimsatt-Moroe Beardsley-William Empson-Robert Penn. Warren-Cleanth Brooks

Biography, intentional fallacy, affective fallacy, heresy of paraphrase.