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RUSSIAN FORMALISM
This movement
of literary criticism is characterized by a concern with the text itself and with
the literary aspects of the text. The Russian formalists were interested more
with words and literary devices rather than the actual meaning of the words themselves.
This school of theory was popular in Russia from approximately 1915 to 1930. Russian
Formalists viewed a text as an object of art itself and as different from everyday
speech and objects and thus worked to figure out what made it so. Key functions
of literature for Russian Formalists are defamiliarization of life through its
representation in literature and exposure of the literature functions by calling
attention to literary forms and conventions.
Major Critics: Roman Jakobson and Mikhail Bakhtin
©2001 Andy Lein and Melissa Vene. Last Updated: December 2001
Comments to: criseis@mac.com
