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   vmasten Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   I'm wondering if you are asking what a Formalist would think of "A Raisin in the Sun" or how a Formalist would approach or critique the play. If this is what your questions is asking then this might be a helpful answer.

   First of all dictionary.com describes Formalism as "A method of aesthetic analysis that emphasizes structural elements and artistic techniques rather than content, especially in literary works" This basically means that looking from a Formalist point of view they are looking at the structure of the story instead of the content. For instance a Formalist would focus on the fact that this story was written in a screen play format. They would ask questions like, "Why would the Author choose to structure their story in this form?" "Why not in the form of a novel?" They would also focus on the poem at the beginning of the novel. Why include a completely different form of writing to start the novel? In short Formalist focus on the structure (novel, play, poem) and the artistic techniques (alliteration, imagery, rhyme) to gage the effectiveness of the literary work.

   Sources:

   http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Formalism

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   Posted by vmasten on Wednesday October 22, 2008 at 3:52 PM