What is the Formalist theory in literature?

Formalism, with is often associated with Russian literary theory of the 1920s, but also with the New Criticism being developed in Cambridge in the same period, focuses on the text (the words themselves) of a work of literature. It does not look at the biography of the author, the history of the times in which the text was composed, or at the sources which influenced a text. These types of literary criticism, known respectively as biographical criticism, historical criticism, and source study, were believed to interfere with an encounter with the text as text.

Formalism focuses on what elements make a work literary, and what differentiates—what is added—that makes a literary text different, say, from a scientific paper. Formalists focus on language—metaphor, symbol, and so on—and such elements as ambiguity, irony, paradox, and unity within a text.

The formalist method of focusing on the text itself solved problems such as a tendency to read a work of literature too much through the life of the author—for instance, arguing that Emily Brontë "must have" had a lover to write Wuthering Heights or to get sidetracked into debates over whether Francis Bacon was Shakespeare. It also allowed students who didn't have the advantages of years and years of education in Latin and Greek, and who therefore might not immediately understand allusions in texts, to have access to literature. It was also considered a "scientific" approach to literature that offered a "methodology" at a time when science was considered all-important.

Though formalist techniques are still the backbone of how we approach literature, the idea of isolating a text from its historical context or its author has fallen out of fashion. Most literature classes try to layer on a number of different critical methods.

Formalism is a school of literary criticism that separates a work from the influences of culture, authorship, and society or politics; that is, a work is analyzed purely on its own intrinsic worth. Along with Structuralism, Formalism emerged when science and sociology took on importance in the early part of the twentieth century. In a sense, then, the Formalist theory calls for the analysis of a work of literature's composition and structure, the mechanics of the literary work such as genre and the inherent features such as the syntactical structure and the use of literary devices such as symbol, tropes, meter, rhythm, figures of speech (especially in poetry).

In a novel such as Fitgerald's The Great Gatsby, for instance, a Formalist approach to this work would include how the author juggles time (as part of the element of setting) in the telling of the background of Jay Gatsby; it would also analyze Fitzgerald's marvelous use of symbols and imagery and the trope of recapturing the past. On the other hand, this approach would ignore the tableau of the Jazz Age that Fitzgerald so craftily presents in this novel and the portrayal of the Eastern society with its hierarchy as reflective of the historical period in which the work is set.  Also, when Fitzgerald inserts popular songs from the Jazz Age, such as "Three O'Clock in the Morning," a Formalist criticism would not include a discussion of how this song is reflective of the culture of the Roaring Twenties; instead, it may discuss how this song reflects a mood.

Statements by characters would be analyzed simply on their own merit. For instance, when Nick Carraway calls Daisy and Tom Buchanan "careless people," a Formalist criticism would analyze how the Buchanans are selfish and unfeeling toward others, not caring what happens to others:

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

However, other types of criticism would include the observation that Nick's epithet for the Buchanans also implies that they do not care what is done to others so long as they have their social position and reputation intact (societal analysis). Thus, they typify the wealthy socialites of the East that Fitzgerald himself so disliked (authorship analysis).

What are the major features of Formalism in literature?

One of the critical contentions of the Romantic thinkers was the ability to focus on the subjective in textual creation.  The Romantics were driven by understanding all of the forces that play a role in the development of the text. The subjective and the influences on the subjective in the construction of textual products were of vital concern to Romanticism. For example, Wordsworth has no problem talking about the influence of the natural or even the political world in the construction of his text.  In his writing, these influences and the role of his own subjective are almost as, if not more important, than the text itself.

Formalism seeks to separate literature from such an idea.  The Formalist thinker believes that textual creation must stand on its own.  Formalism "...defined and addressed the specifically literary qualities in the text."  The text stands alone and analysis should be focused on the text itself as opposed to the social, political, and psychological conditions that influence it.  Formalism rejects  "...forms of 'extrinsic' criticism that viewed the text as either the product of social and historical forces or a document making an ethical statement."  In Formalism's of the need to embrace the text apart from all other considerations, greater freedom of thought regarding the text emerges.  Formalism believes that teaching students to embrace the "extrinsic" elements of the text would result in inevitable bias and dogmatic recitation that supplants a pure analysis of the text:  “No matter how sound the politics … the student would have no choice but to regurgitate that dogma in the clearest terms possible and to shift concentration onto matters of structure and correctness."  Such a belief animates the Formalist point of view.  Formalism strives to speak to the "organic unity" of a text as opposed to the considerations that other schools of thought see as essential in understanding the predispositions and understanding of a text.

Formalism's major feature involves placing primacy on the text "standing alone."  Formalism believes that involving other forces in textual analysis detracts from the purpose of literature composition.  Seeking to bring other influences into the analysis of text moves the student away from pure appreciation of literature construction.  Hartman argues that Formalism is "a method ... of revealing the human content of art by a study of its formal properties."  It is this condition of "formal properties" that becomes one of the movement's major features.