Formalism:The Science of Literature

What is Formalism?

• Also referred to as “New Criticism”

• Relies solely on the text for analysis (no author biography, no cultural background)

• Breaks down literary/poetic devices• How they’re used

• Why they’re used

• Examines how the author is creating emotion within the text• Why is it funny/sad/infuriating?

• What language creates this feeling?

Why “Row, row, row your boat” is a poetic gem

Row, row, row your boatGently down the stream.Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrilyLife is but a dream.

• Repetition and syllable stress:• Mirrors a rower’s stroke

• Creates a rhythm that can be felt

• Poetic devices:• Second and fourth lines contain

end rhyme

• First line uses assonance between “row” and “boat”

• Third line becomes onomatopoetic

Why “Row, row, row your boat” is a poetic gem

Row, row, row your boatGently down the stream.Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrilyLife is but a dream.

• It’s your boat• Gives the audience control

• Allows you to envision your own rowboat

• It’s done “gently”• No sense of urgency

• Goes with the literal flow of the stream

• “Life is but a dream”• Focuses on the impermanence of things

Big Concepts in Formalism

• Defamiliarization

• Story vs. Plot

• Practical vs. Poetic Language: A measure of Literariness

• Form & Stylistic Devices

Early Spring AubadeThe branches outside this office windowtoo often block the light, but today the early

morning sun wavers, then prevails, stipplingthis space with a tentative dawn that crawls

toward an even more fragile day. All the failuresof my life on earth are erased in this quivering

grace that works its lacy way through its owncurious birth. This is the one appointed hour

that comes and gives and goes again—too soon—the briefest visit, that leaves this faltering glow,

the gift of a faint, definite urging, the finestpower we have—so close, this close to Love.

-Mary M. Brown

• Level 1: Sketch the scene with specific attention to setting• Level 2: Take note of poetic

devices: What are they and why are they used?• Level 3: What else catches your

attention? Why?• Level 4: Outline main topics in a

Formalist essay about this poem.