Formalist Literary Criticism

History
1920s and 1930s one school of Formalist literary criticism developed called New Criticism. It is still the major form of literary criticism applied to analysing texts in secondary schools.

Definition
a form of literary criticism in which the text is viewed as a complete, isolated unit. Meaning is found by studying one or more key elements.

Explanation
It focuses on the elements of fiction and emphasizes how these elements work together to create, in a work of quality, a coherent whole: unity of plot, theme, and character, through use of tone, point of view, imagery, purposeful action, dialogue, and description.

Key Elements
Language Imagery Point of View Plot Structure Character Development and Motivation

Strengths
Reader does not need any additional knowledge other than whats provided in the text for interpreting the work.

Weaknesses
It ignores the authors intentions It assumes that good literature is coherent and that a text that is not coherent by its standards is not good literature. it divorces literature from its larger cultural context it assumes that readers can refrain from investing emotionally in their reading and can/should respond objectively to texts