3. Textual Reading: Formalistic, Linguistic and New Criticism
A. Multiple Choice Questions.
1) Which of the following statements reflects the essence of
textual reading?
a)
The author's background plays a key role in the analysis of a literary text.
b)
The author and the reader determine the meaning of a literary text.
c)
We should take into account the form and language of a literary text rather
than its content.
d)
Form and content both are equally important.
2) According to Formalist critics, literariness
comprises.................
a)
prosodic features and content of a literary text.
b)
prosodic features, content, and cultural background of a literary text.
c)
prosodic and textual features as well as literary devices.
d)
textual features of a literary text and the author's intention.
3) The technique of presenting a common thing in a strange way
is called........
a)
defamiliarization
b)
foregrounding
c)
backgrounding
d)
fronting
4) Alliteration is an example
of..............................
a)
lexical cohesion
b)
syntactic cohesion
c)
phonological cohesion
d)
linguistic cohesion
5) Which of the following literary criticisms has its origin in
the American literary circle?
a)
Formalism
b)
Structuralism.
c)
Linguistic criticism
d)
New Criticism
6) A literary text is the only source of
aesthetic experience. It means:
a)
Meaning lies only in the literary text.
b)
Meaning lies beyond the literary text.
c)
Meaning lies in the intention of the author/poet.
d)
Meaning lies in the mind of the reader.
7) Broadly speaking, textual reading
means reading a literary work as a text.
a) critic
b) analysis
c) text
d) refreshment
8) The French literary theorist and critic.................takes
a text as a vehicle for the production and dissemination of cultural meanings.
a) Joe Moran
b) Roland Barthes
c) Roman Jakobson
d) Vladimir Propp
9) Textual reading aims to find out how
a literary work is woven from phonological, lexical and grammatical,
and.......................resources.
a)
lexical
b)
syntactic
c)
discourse
d)
linguistic
10) The Formalist perspective or the
formalist approach originated in Russia in the 1920s and continued to grow in Czechoslovakia
in the..........................
a) 1927s
b) 1928s
c) 1929s
d) 1930s
11) According to........................., a literary work
itself contains all the elements necessary for understanding the work.
Therefore, a reader doesn't need to go outside the work to understand it.
a)
Formalist
b)
Structuralist
c)
Linguistic critics
d)
New Critics
12) The most influential Formalists
are............................
a) Vladimir Propp, Boris Tomashevsky, Grigory
Gukovsky, and Roland Barthes
b) Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson, Vladimir Propp, and
Grigory Gukovsky
c) Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov,
Vladimir Propp, Boris Eichenbaum,
d) Vladimir Propp, Roman Jakobson, Boris Tomashevsky,
and Roland Barthes
13) Which is not key concepts of the Formalist
approach............
a) Focus on textual features
b) Differences between literary and practical language
c) Libertines on meaning
d) Techniques of defamiliarization and foregrounding
14) The form of a literary text means
both external form and organic form. The........................refers to the
overall structure of a work.
a) local form
b) external form
c) organic form
d) hybrid form
14) The form of a literary text means
both external form and organic form. The.......................refers to the
organization of sounds, words and sentences to present aesthetic experiences.
a) local form
b) external form
c) organic form
d) hybrid form
15) ....................are rhyme,
rhythm, alliteration, assonance, and phonological cohesion (sound-patterns).
a) coherence pattern
b) prosodic features
c) literary devices
d) Narrative techniques
16) Prosodic features also
comprise.......................(figures of speech) such as metaphor and simile,
personification, pun (wordplay), irony, and hyperbole, and syntactic
parallelism.
a) coherence pattern
b) prosodic features
c) literary devices
d) Narrative techniques
17) ..........................such as
backstory, flashback, flash-forward, and foreshadowing are also part of textual
features.
a) coherence pattern
b) prosodic features
c) literary devices
d) Narrative techniques
18) The heavy presence of prosodic
features and........................makes literary language distinctly
different from practical language.
a) coherence pattern
b) figures of speech
c) literary devices
d) Narrative techniques
19. According
to........................., "Everyday language aims at efficient
communication through references to ideas and objects. Poetic language draws
attention to its own texture rather than to objects or concepts which the words
represent".
a) Joe Moran
b) Roland Barthes
c) Roman Jakobson
d) Irenar R. Makaryk
20) ......................refers to the
feature that makes a given work a literary work. It comprises prosodic and
textual features and literary devices used in a literary work that makes it
different from non-literary works.
a) defamiliarization
b) literariness
c) foregrounding
d) practical language
21) ............................is an artistic technique of
presenting a common thing in an unfamiliar or strange way. The literary writer
often uses this technique to invite the reader to look at the thing from a new
and different perspective.
a) defamiliarization
b) literariness
c) foregrounding
d) practical language
22) The use of figures of speech is one of the most common
techniques of.........................................
a) practical language
b) literariness
c) foregrounding
d) defamiliarization
23) The....................on literature focuses on the linguistic
structure of a text. The linguistic structure of a text comprises its sounds,
words, and sentences, and the interrelationship among them.
a) linguistic perspective
b) literariness
c) foregrounding
d) defamiliarization
24) Linguistic analysis of literature is primarily influenced by
structural linguistics developed by the Swiss
linguist............................., which treats language as a system of
interrelated structures.
a) Joe Moran
b) Ferdinand de Saussure
c) Roman Jakobson
d) Irenar R. Makaryk
25) The....................focuses on
phonological, syntactic, and lexical/semantic features of a literary text.
a) gender perspective
b) margin perspective
c) linguistic perspective
d) class perspective
26) .....................is the
recurrent patterning or repetition of linguistic units in a text.
a) cohesion
b) coherence
c) simile
d) metaphor
27)
.......................means a usual or accepted way of behaving in social
situations.
a) cohesion
b) coherence
c) Convention
d) metaphor
28) Language is a socially
accepted and historically determined.............................
a) cohesion
b) practice
c) Convention
d) metaphor
29)
Literally,........................means are determined by chance, not by
reason. When we say language is....................., it means there is no
inherent link between language forms (words) and their meanings.
a) cohesion
b) practice
c) Convention
d) arbitrary
30) The...........................means
the physical form of a sign. It can be a sound or a printed form of the word.
a) cohesion
b) signifier
c) Convention
d) signified
31) The........................denotes
the meaning, idea, or concept expressed by the sign.
a) cohesion
b) signifier
c) Convention
d) signified
32) The.......................meaning is the basic or dictionary
meaning of a word that does not change according to the context and culture.
a) cohesion
b) connotative
c) denotative
d) signified
33) Dog has a different cultural meaning such as an unpleasant
or untrustworthy person, loyalty, guidance, and protection, such a culturally
assigned meaning is called a......................meaning.
a) connotative
b) signifier
c) Convention
d) denotative
34) New Criticism originated
from................ Its roots are found in John Crowe Ransom's seminal work
The New Criticism published in..................
a) Russia, 1941
b) United Kingdom, 1941
c) America, 1941
d) Canada, 1941
35) .........................regards a
literary text as a primary object of analysis, its ultimate focus is on the
text itself disregarding the author's biography and socio-cultural context of
the text.
a) gender criticism
b) New criticism
c) linguistic criticism
d) class criticism
36) For........................, the
text is the only source of aesthetic experiences, which views that a poem or
any literary work is an autonomous verbal artifact.
a) gender criticism
b) class criticism
c) linguistic criticism
d) New criticism
37) New Critics suggest the......................, which is
slow, sincere, intensive, and recursive and it is more applicable to poetry
than short story, novel, and drama and the reader assumes that the meaning is
found in the words on the page alone.
a) skipping reading
b) close reading
c) scanning
d) normal reading
38)
The...........................include personification, hyperbole, allegory,
irony, metonymy, onomatopoeia, paradox, parody, irony, pun, and sarcasm.
a) coherence pattern
b) prosodic features
c) literary devices
d) figures of speech
39)
An.............................stands for a mental picture made out of words.
a) symbol
b) image
c) chorus
d) act
40) .........................is a
literary device used to convey the hidden meaning.
a) symbolism
b) image
c) purification
d) conventional
B. Answer the following questions.
1) What is a text? What is the central aim of
textual reading? Do you find any relevance between the text and literature?
Literally,
a text means a piece of written or printed material that communicates a certain
message. In literature, it refers to a literary work such as a story or a poem
that is regarded as an object to be analyzed or examined. It is a linguistic
artifact, i.e. an object created by human beings for an aesthetic purpose. It
is a written material that serves the expressive and poetic functions of
language. The French literary theorist and critic Roland Barthes takes a text
as a vehicle for the production and dissemination of cultural meanings. In
conclusion, textual reading means reading a literary work as a
text.
Textual reading aims to find out how a literary work is woven from
phonological, lexical and grammatical, and discourse resources. It involves
what literary devices the author has used to organize these resources to
achieve his/her rhetorical goals. It is the practice of close reading of a text
to find out how the text produces meaning. When we read a literary text
closely, we are putting its subject, form, and specific word choices under
microscopic observation. The focus of textual reading is more on the form and
language of the text than its content and message. It means that how the content
is organized and communicated to achieve the rhetorical goal is more important
than the content.
Textual reading or analysis requires us to look at a literary text as it is and
to explore what literary devices the author has used to express himself/herself.
Such devices comprise allusion, alliteration, assonance, diction,
foregrounding, analogy, contrast, and so on. When we read the text as it is,
our focus is on textual devices and textual features such as phonological
cohesion, meter, rhythm, lexical cohesion, and word choice. In this type of
reading, we do not take into account the context of the literary text. The
contextual evidence involves the background of the topic, the background of the
author, and the socio-historical context in which the text was written.
Formalist,
New Criticism, and linguistic perspectives are the major perspectives that
prioritize form over content of a text. The guiding principle underlying these
perspectives is that a literary text is distinct from a non-literary text
because of howness- style, structure, tone, imagery, etc. not because of
whatness, content. They all assume that literature is a unique form of writing
which needs to be examined on its own terms. So, there are lots of relevance
between the text and literature.
2) How is the close reading of the text carried out?
Close
reading is related to the examination of the complex relationship between or
text's formal elements and its theme. Because of New Criticism's belief that
the literary text can be understood primarily by understanding its form, a
clear understanding of the definition of specific formal elements is important.
Some of the textual features of new criticism are the use of figures of speech,
imagery, and symbolism. New criticism advocates for the close reading of text
to get figurative, symbolic, and imaginary meaning.
New
Critics suggest the close reading of a literary work to understand and
experience it. This type of reading is slow, sincere, intensive, and recursive.
Close reading is more applicable to poetry than short story, novel, and drama.
While reading a poem closely, the reader assumes that the meaning is found in
the words on the page alone.
As indicated above, New Critics take the form and the meaning (content) of a
poem inseparable. The role of the reader is to read the poem closely in order
to reveal how words, figures of speech, irony, symbolism, paradox, and
ambiguity reveal the multiple layers of meaning of the poem. For this, the
reader should carry out word-by-word analysis of a poem to find out denotative
and connotative meanings of words, to understand figurative, symbolic,
ambiguous meanings. Of the properties of a literary text, we discuss the use of
figures of speech, symbolism, and imagery.
Figures of speech are the words or phrases used for rhetorical or vivid
effects. Such words or phrases create a mental picture in the mind of the
reader by comparing or identifying one thing with another. For example, in Amar
Singh was a lion, a lion is a figure of speech (a metaphor) which suggests Amar
Singh's bravery. Likewise, when the speaker of Robert Burns's poem says, O my
love is like a red, red rose, he compares his love with a red rose. Here red
rose is an example of a simile. Some of the other figures of speech include
personification, hyperbole, allegory, irony, metonymy, onomatopoeia, paradox,
parody, irony, pun, and sarcasm.
These
literary devices are used-
a)
to show a similarity or relationship (e.g. simile, metaphor, and
personification),
b)
to emphasize (e.g. hyperbole: My grandmother is as old as hills),
C)
to imitate sounds (e.g. onomatopoeia: Whack, bang, hiss, grunt, moo,
cockle-doodle-doo), and
d)
to play on words (e.g. pun: What's black and white and red (= read) all over?)
Literary works and poems in particular are packed with figures of speech. The
use of figures of speech deepens the meanings, intensifies the feelings and
concretizes images expressed in the text. The reader has to read the text
closely and minutely to unpack the meanings, feelings, and images conveyed by
the figures of speech.
3) What is the Formalist perspective? What are the key concepts
of the Formalist perspective in literature? Discuss any two with examples.
The
Formalist perspective or the formalist approach originated in Russia in the
1920s and continued to grow in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. This approach came
as a reaction against the biographical approach which places the author at the
center of analysis. The biographical approach analyzes a literary work with
reference to external factors such as the author's life, and his/her intention.
Formalists regard that language and literary devices are intrinsic properties
of a literary work. These are the only properties that can be observed in the
text. The text-focused analysis is claimed to be impersonal, objective, and
scientific.
Some
key concepts of the Formalist approach
The Formalist approach requires us to read a literary work from a quite
different perspective. There are certain key concepts associated with this
approach. Familiarity with such concepts helps us to look at the text through
the Formalist lens.
i) Focus on textual features
ii)
Differences between literary and practical language
iii)
Literariness
iv)
Techniques of defamiliarization and foregrounding
Among these four key
concepts of the Formalist approach, first and second concepts are discussed
below:
i)
Focus on textual features
The
Formalist approach prioritizes form over content. The form of a literary text
means both external form and organic form. The external form refers to the
overall structure of a work. For example, sonnet, ode, free verse are different
forms of poetry. The external form also means how a particular poem is organized
how many stanzas does it have? How many lines does each stanza have? How the
lines are broken? What is its metrical form?
The
organic form, on the other hand, refers to the organization of sounds, words
and sentences to present aesthetic experiences. It concerns the
interrelationship between these linguistic forms and the images that they evoke
in the mind of the reader. Its main concern is how different textual features
contribute to the overall meaning of the work. Such features are prosodic features
such as rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, and phonological cohesion
(sound-patterns). They also comprise literary devices (figures of speech) such
as metaphor and simile, personification, pun (wordplay), irony, and hyperbole,
and syntactic parallelism. Narrative techniques such as back-story, flashback,
flash-forward, and foreshadowing are also part of textual features. For
Formalist critics, these and other textual features are of primary importance
because there is an intrinsic relationship between these features and the
meaning of the text.
ii) Differences between literary and practical language
Formalist
critics highlight the differences between literary (poetic) and practical
language. The literary use of language deviates from the everyday use of
language. The heavy presence of prosodic features and figures of speech makes
literary language distinctly different from practical language. We can see
different forms of deviation at lexical and syntactic levels. Everyday language
aims at efficient communication through references to ideas and objects. Poetic
language draws attention to its own texture rather than to objects or concepts
which the words represent. It means practical language has the referential
function, whereas poetic language draws the reader's attention to its own
features such as sound patterns.
4) Form is more important than content or message of a literary
work. Do you agree with this claim of the Formalist approach? Justify your
point of view.
Before
presenting the view on form is more important than content or message of a
literary work, first we need to analyze the concept of Formalist perspective
very minutely.
The
Formalist approach prioritizes form over content. The form of a literary text
means both external form and organic form. The external form refers to the
overall structure of a work. The organic
form, on the other hand, refers to the organization of sounds, words and
sentences to present aesthetic experiences. It concerns the interrelationship
between these linguistic forms and the images that they evoke in the mind of
the reader. Its main concern is how different textual features contribute to
the overall meaning of the work. For Formalist critics, textual features are of
primary importance because there is an intrinsic relationship between these
features and the meaning of the text.
Formalist critics highlight the differences between literary and practical
language. The literary use of language deviates from the everyday use of
language. The heavy presence of prosodic features and figures of speech makes
literary language distinctly different from practical language. We can see
different forms of deviation at lexical and syntactic levels. Everyday language
aims at efficient communication through references to ideas and objects. Poetic
language draws attention to its own texture rather than to objects or concepts
which the words represent. It means practical language has the referential
function, whereas poetic language draws the reader's attention to its own
features such as sound patterns.
According to Formalist critics, the object of literary criticism is
literariness of a text, not its content. Literariness refers to the feature
that makes a given work a literary work. It comprises prosodic and textual
features and literary devices used in a literary work that makes it different
from non-literary works. These properties and their organization distinguish
literary language from non-literary language of everyday communication and the
language used in other fields such as science and journalism.
Defamiliarization
is an artistic technique of presenting a common thing in an unfamiliar or
strange way. The literary writer often uses this technique to invite the reader
to look at the thing from a new and different perspective. The use of figures
of speech is one of the most common techniques of defamiliarization. For
Formalist critics, literature does not reflect the world. It only
defamiliarizes or makes the world strange by using figures of speech and prosodic
features.
There
is no doubt that the formalist perspective focuses on the objective analysis of
poetic language. It deliberately excludes the content of a literary text from
the analysis. The claim of the Formalist approach 'Form is more important than
content or message of a literary work' is true here. In literary text, of
course, form is the most playful thing which decorates the artistic skill and
makes us puzzle. And, on the other hand, we can't totally ignore the content as
well. Without fabulous content only form could not please the reader, who is
primary focus to enjoy the literary stuff.
5) What is defamiliarization in literature? Give an examples of
defamiliarization from any literary work you have read. Explain each example
showing how the author has presented it in a strange way.
Defamiliarization
refers to the literary device whereby language is used in such a way that
ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different. It is a process of
transformation where language asserts its power to affect our perception. It is
that aspect which differentiates between ordinary usage and poetic usage of
language, and imparts uniqueness to a literary work.
Defamiliarization
is an artistic technique of presenting a common thing in an unfamiliar or
strange way. The literary writer often uses this technique to invite the reader
to look at the thing from a new and different perspective. The use of figures
of speech is one of the most common techniques of defamiliarization. For
Formalist critics, literature does not reflect the world. It only
defamiliarizes or makes the world strange by using figures of speech and
prosodic features. The technique of defamiliarization rekindles readers'
sensitivity to everyday phenomena.
Related to defamiliarization is the technique of foregrounding. It is the
technique of making particular sounds, words, phrases, or clauses more
prominent than others in a literary work. This technique is most commonly
observed in poetry. The poet uses alliteration, assonance, and metrical
repetition to foreground certain sounds.
Examples
of defamiliarization from the literary work I have read, here the opening lines
from Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous poem Break, Break, Break:
Break, break, break,
On
thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
The first line has the alliteration with the voiced plosive /b/. The repetition
of this plosive sound evokes the image of breaking something. It means the poet
has made this sound prominent in the first line to draw the reader's mind
towards the broken image. Likewise, figures of speech and repetition of words
are used to foreground the meaning at the semantic level. Finally, syntactic
inversion, fronting, and grammatical repetition help to achieve foregrounding
at the grammatical level.
The
formalists, however, endorse defamiliarization effected by novelty in the usage
of formal linguistic devices in poetry, such as rhyme, metre, metaphor, image
and symbol. Thus literary language is ordinary language deformed and made
strange. Literature, by forcing us into a dramatic awareness of language,
refreshes our habitual perceptions and renders objects more perceptible.
6) What is linguistic perspective on literature? How is language
a matter of convention?
The
linguistic perspective provides rich, detailed information about how language
functions in interactions between and among people (e.g., teachers and
students) in various settings (e.g., classrooms, homes, or playgrounds) to
support learning. The linguistic perspective on literature focuses on the
linguistic structure of a text. The linguistic structure of a text comprises
its sounds, words, and sentences, and the interrelationship among them.
The linguistic perspective or approach applies principles, categories, and
methods of linguistics for the analysis of a literary text. Linguistic analysis
of literature is primarily influenced by structural linguistics developed by
the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. Structural linguistics treats
language as a system of interrelated structures. That is to say, language is a
network of interrelated units, namely sounds, words, phrases, clauses, and
sentences. From the linguistic perspective, a literary work is a linguistic
entity made up of such interrelated units.
The linguistic perspective focuses on phonological, syntactic, and
lexical/semantic features of a literary text. It analyzes how different units
of language are arranged linearly (syntagmatically) and vertically
(paradigmatically) and how these arrangements contribute to the formation of a
literary text. Its focus is on how the author arranges phonological, lexical
and grammatical resources to create dramatic effects on the reader. The
arrangement of these linguistic resources is called cohesion.
Let's talk about how language a matter of convention is:
Convention
means a usual or accepted way of behaving in social situations. Structural
linguistics regards language a matter of convention like any other social
practice. The relation of linguistic signs, i.e. words with their meanings is
established socially and historically rather than by means of a natural
relation between them. So is the arrangement of words at the syntactic level.
Language is a socially accepted and historically determined practice. At the
lexical level, the relationship between the word table and the object table is,
for example, conventional, not natural. Likewise, there is no natural factor to
determine that the verb in English should occur before the noun (SOV) and after
the object in Nepali (SVO). Thus, the specific arrangement of sounds to form a
word, the specific arrangement of words to form a sentence, and the
relationship between words and their meanings all are conventional.
Undoubtedly, they are governed by certain rules. However, these rules are
established conventionally.
Like our everyday use of language, the language of literature is also
conventional. Although literature is taken as an expression of individual
feelings and emotions, it is a highly conventionalized mode of expression. That
is to say, the writer makes use of conventional rules and norms to express
his/her personal feelings and emotions. The language of literature has
identifiable phonological, grammatical and lexical features. For example, the
repetition of sounds, use of figures of speech such as metaphor and simile, and
parallel grammatical structures are conventional features of poetry.
7) What are the assumptions that guide the linguistic
perspective on literature?
The
linguistic perspective provides rich, detailed information about how language
functions in interactions between and among people in various settings to
support learning. Here, we are going to discuss four assumptions that guide the
linguistic perspective on literature.
i)
Language as a matter of convention
Convention
means a usual or accepted way of behaving in social situations. Language is a
socially accepted and historically determined practice. The specific
arrangement of sounds to form a word, the specific arrangement of words to form
a sentence, and the relationship between words and their meanings all are
conventional. Undoubtedly, they are governed by certain rules. However, these
rules are established conventionally.
Like our everyday use of language, the language of literature is also
conventional. Although literature is taken as an expression of individual
feelings and emotions, it is a highly conventionalized mode of expression. That
is to say, the writer makes use of conventional rules and norms to express
his/her personal feelings and emotions. The language of literature has
identifiable phonological, grammatical and lexical features. For example, the
repetition of sounds, use of figures of speech such as metaphor and simile, and
parallel grammatical structures are conventional features of poetry.
ii)
Language as an arbitrary phenomenon
Language
is conventional means it is an arbitrary phenomenon. Literally, arbitrary means
are determined by chance, not by reason. When we say language is arbitrary, it
means there is no inherent link between language forms (words) and their
meanings. The link between them is conventionally established. For example, the
same animal known as kukur in Nepali is known by different names in different
languages. It is called kutta in Hindi, dog in English and hund in German, and
so on. It is arbitrary because there is nothing in any of these words that
reflects the shape, size and character of this animal. A language form is
arbitrary also means it has no inherent meaning or truth. The meaning of a
particular language form depends on its relation to other words.
iii) Sound-meaning relationship (signifier-signified relationship)
Ferdinand
de Saussure divides a sign, i.e. a word into two components: signifier and signified.
The signifier means the physical form of a sign. It can be a sound or a printed
form of the word. The signified, on the other hand, denotes the meaning, idea,
or concept expressed by the sign. The signifier is the material form, whereas
the signified is the meaning. The signifier (sounds/letters) and the signified
(meaning/concept) is in an arbitrary relationship. There is no logical
connection between them.
iv) The singularity of meaning (linguistic meaning)
The
linguistic approach is primarily concerned with a denotative or linguistic
meaning of a signifier (i.e. word). The denotative meaning is the basic or
dictionary meaning of a word that does not change according to the context and
culture. Denotatively, dog, to for example, has a single meaning i.e., a
domesticated carnivorous mammal with a long snout. However, dog has a different
cultural meaning such as an unpleasant or untrustworthy person, loyalty,
guidance, and protection. Such a culturally assigned meaning is called a
connotative meaning.
To sum up, these perspectives suggest that the reader should look at how
sounds, words, phrases, sentences, and other larger units are me organized in a
text. In these perspectives, meanings originate from the relationship and
interaction between these linguistic units.
8) What is New Criticism? Discuss the different features of New
Criticism.
New
Criticism originated from America. Like the Formalist perspective, New
Criticism regards a literary text as a primary object of analysis. In other
words, its ultimate focus is on the text itself disregarding the author's
biography and socio-cultural context of the text. New Critics advocate
objective and text-centered criticism. It directs the reader's attention to the
language of the text, the interplay of literary devices, and formal properties.
New Criticism is broader and more liberal than the Formalist perspective.
Unlike
Formalists, New Critics do not remove the theme of the text from its analysis.
For them, the formal properties of a literary work are inseparable from its
theme. Theme and form are interconnected like body and soul. For a text to be
organic, each part is necessary and should fit well with other parts, and all
parts should work together to contribute to the overall theme and organization
of work. Every character, every event, every image, every tension, every
ambiguity is supposed to contribute to the overall theme of the work. New
Critics assert that we need to explore the complex interplay of formal elements
such as symbolism, ambiguity, irony, and imagery to understand the theme.
There
are different features of New Criticism that make it distinct from other
critical perspectives.
i) Text as the only source of aesthetic experience
For
New Critics, the text is the only source of aesthetic experiences. They view
that a poem or any literary work is an autonomous verbal artifact. That is to
say, it is a linguistic entity that exists on its own. It has nothing to do
with socio-cultural context and the poet's intention. It suggests that readers
should focus on the interactions and meanings of words, figures of speech, and
symbols for aesthetic experiences. There is no need for them to take into
account the external factors to understand and experience the work. The
external factors such as biography and personal experiences of the author and
socio-cultural environment in which the work was written divert the reader from
experiencing the true nature of the work.
ii) A close reading of figures of speech, imagery, and symbolism
New
Critics suggest the close reading of a literary work to understand and
experience it. This type of reading is slow, sincere, intensive, and recursive.
Close reading is more applicable to poetry than short story, novel, and drama.
While reading a poem closely, the reader assumes that the meaning is found in
the words on the page alone.
Of the properties of a literary text, we discuss the use of figures of speech,
symbolism, and imagery.
Figures of speech are the words or phrases used for rhetorical or vivid
effects. Such words or phrases create a mental picture in the mind of the
reader by comparing or identifying one thing with another. The other figures of
speech include personification, hyperbole, allegory, irony, metonymy,
onomatopoeia, paradox, parody, irony, pun, and sarcasm.
New Criticism regards imagery as an essential component of a poem. A poem
communicates its meaning primarily through a series of images. In its broadest
sense, an image stands for a mental picture made out of words. A poem is
composed of a multiplicity of images.
Symbolism is a literary device used to convey the hidden meaning. A symbol
suggests more than its literal meaning. A symbol can be an object, place, or
event that stands for something else. For example, a rose is a symbol of love;
a dove or pigeon symbolizes peace. Even a person can be used as a symbol. For
example, Hitler symbolizes an evil mind.
9) What are the similarities and differences between the
Formalist perspective and New Criticism?
New
Criticism originated from America. Like the Formalist perspective, New
Criticism regards a literary text as a primary object of analysis. In other
words, its ultimate focus is on the text itself disregarding the author's biography
and socio-cultural context of the text. Similar to Formalists, New Critics
advocate objective and text-centered criticism. Both criticisms direct the
reader's attention to the language of the text, the interplay of literary
devices, and formal properties. However, New Criticism is broader and more
liberal than the Formalist perspective.
Unlike
Formalists, New Critics do not remove the theme of the text from its analysis.
For them, the formal properties of a literary work are inseparable from its theme.
Theme and form are interconnected like body and soul. For a text to be organic,
each part is necessary and should fit well with other parts, and all parts
should work together to contribute to the overall theme and organization of
work. Every character, every event, every image, every tension, every ambiguity
is supposed to contribute to the overall theme of the work. New Critics assert
that we need to explore the complex interplay of formal elements such as
symbolism, ambiguity, irony, and imagery to understand the theme.
Similarities
Between Russian Formalism and New Criticism
Russian
Formalism and New Criticism are two formalist literary movements that took
place in the first half of the twentieth century. In both these literary
movement, the text itself is more important; it is studied independently of the
author’s intention and historical and cultural context. Moreover, both these
schools of thought mainly focus on poetry.
Difference
Between Russian Formalism and New Criticism
|
Formalist perspective |
New Criticism |
|
Russian formalism was a school of literary criticism
in Russia from the 1910s to 1930s. |
New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary
theory that dominated American literary criticism in the first half of the
20th century. |
|
Formalism was a literary movement in Russia. |
New Criticism was a literary movement in North
America. |
|
Russian formalist believed that there is a
distinction between form and content, and their focus was on the form or
structure of a text, rather than on its content. |
New Critics believed that the form and content of
the text are closely connected and cannot be analyzed separately. |
|
Formalist perspective is narrower and less liberal
than New Criticism. |
New Criticism is broader and more liberal than the
Formalist perspective. |
|
Formalist perspective scholars are Yuri Tynianov,
Viktor Shklovsky, Vladimir Propp, Boris Eichenbaum, Boris Tomashevsky,
Grigory Gukovsky, and Roman Jakobson. |
New Criticism scholars are Robert Penn Warren, John
Crowe Ransom, Allan Tate, Cleanth Brooks, and William. |
10) What are the key functions of literary devices?
The
role of the reader is to read the poem closely in order to reveal how words,
figures of speech, irony, symbolism, paradox, and ambiguity reveal the multiple
layers of meaning of the poem. For this, the reader should carry out
word-by-word analysis of a poem to find out denotative and connotative meanings
of words, to understand figurative, symbolic, ambiguous meanings. Of the
properties of a literary text, we discuss the use of figures of speech,
symbolism, and imagery.
Figures of speech are the words or phrases used for rhetorical or vivid
effects. Such words or phrases create a mental picture in the mind of the
reader by comparing or identifying one thing with another. For example, in Amar
Singh was a lion, a lion is a figure of speech (a metaphor) which suggests Amar
Singh's bravery. Likewise, when the speaker of Robert Burns's poem says, O my
love is like a red, red rose, he compares his love with a red rose. Here red
rose is an example of a simile. Some of the other figures of speech include
personification, hyperbole, allegory, irony, metonymy, onomatopoeia, paradox,
parody, irony, pun, and sarcasm.
The
key functions of literary devices are used
a)
to show a similarity or relationship (e.g. simile, metaphor, and
personification),
b)
to emphasize (e.g. hyperbole: My grandmother is as old as hills),
c)
to imitate sounds (e.g. onomatopoeia: Whack, bang, hiss, grunt, moo,
cockle-doodle-doo), and
d)
to play on words (e.g. pun: What's black and white and red (= read) all over?)
Literary works and poems in particular are packed with figures of speech. The
use of figures of speech deepens the meanings, intensifies the feelings and
concretizes images expressed in the text. The reader has to read the text
closely and minutely to unpack the meanings, feelings, and images conveyed by
the figures of speech.
New Criticism regards imagery as an essential component of a poem. A poem
communicates its meaning primarily through a series of images. In its broadest
sense, an image stands for a mental picture made out of words. A poem is
composed of a multiplicity of images. The following lines from Wordsworth's
classic poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud provide visual imagery:
I
wandered lonely as a cloud
That
floats on high o'er vales and hills
These
lines bring to the reader the visual images of the speaker wandering, being
lonely, a cloud moving over the valleys and hills. However, imagery is not
confined to the reader's sense of sight only. It also appeals to the reader's
sense of hearing or sound, sense of taste, sense of touch, sense of smell, and
sense of motion.
Symbolism
is a literary device used to convey the hidden meaning. A symbol suggests more
than its literal meaning. A symbol can be an object, place, or event that
stands for something else. For example, a rose is a symbol of love; a dove or
pigeon symbolizes peace. Even a person can be used as a symbol. For example,
Hitler symbolizes an evil mind.
11) What is symbolism? Pick out a symbol from a poem, and
explain their meanings with reference to the context.
A
symbol is an image that has both literal and figurative meaning, a concrete
universal such as the swamp. The swamp is a literal swamp. It's wet, it
contains fish and other forms of aquatic life one needs boots and special equipment
to fish in it but it also 'stands for", or "figures" something
else: the emotional problems the protagonist does not feel quite ready to
face-public symbols are usually easy to spot.
For
example, spring is usually a symbol of rebirth or youth, autumn is usually a
symbol of death or dying; a river is usually a symbol of life or journey. Thus
a symbol has properties similar to those of the abstract idea it stands for.
For example a river can symbolize life because both a river and life are fluid and
forward moving, both have source and end point. Sometimes, the context provided
by the text is all we have to go on because some symbols are private, or
meaningful only to the author, and therefore more difficult to figure out of
course, how something operates within the overall meaning of the text is always
the bottom line for New Criticism, so it does not matter whether or not our
analysis of the text's private symbolism matches the author's intention. What
matter is that our analysis of the text's private symbolism, like our analysis
of all its formal elements, supports what we claim is the text's theme.
Symbolism
is a literary device used to convey the hidden meaning. A symbol suggests more
than its literal meaning. A symbol can be an object, place, or event that
stands for something else. For example, a rose is a symbol of love; a dove or
pigeon symbolizes peace. Even a person can be used as a symbol. For example,
Hitler symbolizes an evil mind.
Symbols can be conventional or public and personal. Conventional symbols
include such symbols as rose (romance, love, beauty), night (darkness, death,
grief, ignorance), water (birth or purification), and horse/bull (virility).
Such symbols are shared by different poets/writers. Their meanings are somehow
already fixed and hence are often familiar to readers. Therefore, it might be
easier for the reader to interpret their meanings. Personal symbols, on the
other hand, are created by writers themselves. As a result, they demand more
effort on the part of the reader. Personal symbols demand a much closer reading
of the text.
A
Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
O
my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s
newly sprung in June;
O
my Luve is like the melody
That’s
sweetly played in tune.
In
the starting lines of the poem, the rose is used as a symbol in two different
ways. First, it is used as a symbol of love as considered in many cultures.
Different colors of roses have different significance. Red is symbolic of true
love. Second, it is symbolic of impermanence as it is short-lived. A ‘newly
sprung rose’ which holds a short life, he means to say that this love may only
last a little while.
Best of Luck
.jpg)
