Formalism
Dominated by American writers
deals with particularly poetical language
Russian Formalism
Russian Formalism interested in the language of poetry.
The Moscow Linguistic circle of 1920 and 930 was the forefront of formalist criticism.
Prague School believed that there was a poetic or aesthetic function of Structuralism.
People
Vladimir Propp
The Folklore
Propp argued every character in a folklore plot had a specific function.
Propp identified 31 functions to be identified in every folklore
Propp’s list: Hero, False Hero, Villain, Donor or provider, Princes and her father, despatcher.
Viktor Shklovosky
Tzvetar Todorov
Popular Formalists Writings
Boris Eichenbaum’s works
Poetics by Viktor Shklovosky
On the Theory of Prose (1926,1929) – Shklovosky
Modern Russian Poetry – 1921 by Roman Jakobson
Morphology of the Folklore 1028 – Vladimir
Concepts
Defamiliarization – Shklovosky, poetry uses language to defamiliarize
Poetic language
Does not seek to convey information, it is an end in itself.
Self reflective, drawing attention to itself, poetic language makes us aware that it is unique.
Often mean multiple things thus destabilises meaning itself.
Morphology of Folklore – term by Propp.
Shklovosky’s classical essay Art as Technique treated Laurence Sterney’s Tristram Shandy as a novel that parodied earlier conventions of writing and thus draws attention to the very act of literary writings.
Poetic language is not used in the service of communication.
Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson argued that there is two rhetorical forms – Metaphor and Metonymy
Language works on the duel principles of selection and combination. Poetic language uses the both
In communication meaning is based on 6 elements: Code, Addresser, Addressee, Message, Contact, Context.
A.J Greiman
Greiman evolves a set of 6 actions, that is, a set of Semes or binary oppositions that provide the grammar and rules for all narratives as follows:
Subject/Object
Sender/Receiver
Helper/Opponent
Tzventan Todorov
Todorov isolates three specific components of language
Semantic: Form
Syntactic: Arrangement of structural units
Verbal: Word and phrases through which the story is told.
Semiotics
Popular in media studies, film, culture and linguistics
Conceptis
Representamen/ Signifier
Interpretant/ Signified
Object – to which the sign referred
Symbol/Symbolic
Icon/Iconic
Index/Indexical
Juliaa Kristiva argued that the entrance of the subject into language was motivated by pleaure signification including two major components: Semiotics(what she termed genotext) and Symbolic
