Russian Formalism in Poetry
Introduction
For my essay I am going to adopt a formalist approach to Wordsworth’s ‘The Thorn’. In particular I will be looking into the views of the Russian formalists such as Victor Shlovsky and Alexander Potebnya, and relating their thoughts to the poem.
I will then be seeing how the ‘The Thorn’ relates to elements of the uncanny in its content. I will finish by including a reader response, where I will draw on my own thoughts of the poem.
Russian formalism
Russian formalism advocated a ‘scientific’ method for studying poetic language. Russian formalists saw poetry as something that can be mechanically taken in order to reveal devices that make it up. The formalists believed that poetry was made up of several different devices purposely placed to increase length of perception. As Erlich points out, " It was intent upon delimiting literary scholarship from contiguous disciplines such as psychology, sociology, intellectual history, and the list theoreticians focused on the 'distinguishing features' of literature, on the artistic devices peculiar to imaginative writing" (The New Princeton Encyclopedia 1101- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_formalism#Mechanistic_Formalism). Shlovsky believed that in life we take general signs for granted, And he believed that poetic language played with form and content to make the receiver think more purposely about what they were reading. Shlovskys argument, briefly stated, “is that the habitual way of thinking is to make the unfamiliar as easily digestible as possible. Normally our perceptions are “automatic,” which is another way of saying that they are minimal” (Russian formalist criticism four essays page 4). Thus according to Russian formalism “The role of art in general is to remove this veil of familiarity , to re-alert us to the objects , ideas and events which no longer make an impression (class handout , part one, formal introduction).
Wordsworth's ‘The thorn’ can be seen to draw on several Russian formalist
For my essay I am going to adopt a formalist approach to Wordsworth’s ‘The Thorn’. In particular I will be looking into the views of the Russian formalists such as Victor Shlovsky and Alexander Potebnya, and relating their thoughts to the poem.
I will then be seeing how the ‘The Thorn’ relates to elements of the uncanny in its content. I will finish by including a reader response, where I will draw on my own thoughts of the poem.
Russian formalism
Russian formalism advocated a ‘scientific’ method for studying poetic language. Russian formalists saw poetry as something that can be mechanically taken in order to reveal devices that make it up. The formalists believed that poetry was made up of several different devices purposely placed to increase length of perception. As Erlich points out, " It was intent upon delimiting literary scholarship from contiguous disciplines such as psychology, sociology, intellectual history, and the list theoreticians focused on the 'distinguishing features' of literature, on the artistic devices peculiar to imaginative writing" (The New Princeton Encyclopedia 1101- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_formalism#Mechanistic_Formalism). Shlovsky believed that in life we take general signs for granted, And he believed that poetic language played with form and content to make the receiver think more purposely about what they were reading. Shlovskys argument, briefly stated, “is that the habitual way of thinking is to make the unfamiliar as easily digestible as possible. Normally our perceptions are “automatic,” which is another way of saying that they are minimal” (Russian formalist criticism four essays page 4). Thus according to Russian formalism “The role of art in general is to remove this veil of familiarity , to re-alert us to the objects , ideas and events which no longer make an impression (class handout , part one, formal introduction).
Wordsworth's ‘The thorn’ can be seen to draw on several Russian formalist
Bibliography: • The New Princeton Encyclopedia 1101 • Russian formalist criticism four essays , Lee T. Lemon and Marion J.Reis • Contemporary Literary Criticism , Robert Con Davis an Ronald Schleifer • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_formalism#Mechanistic_Formalism • Romanticism – possible approaches ll (class handout) • Romanticism, an anthology third edition, edited by Duncan Wu • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny