Current issues in literary theory

1. Current Issues in Literary
Theory
Ilyas Babar Awan
Lecturer in English
National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad

2. Formalism(S) (1915-1930)
• “An approach to literature that analyses its internal features( its
structure, texture and imagery ) and minimizes or ignores its
relation to historical , social ,political or biographical factors”.
• It discards historical context, author and other related elements.
• Finally eliminated for political reasons by joseph Stalin around
1930.

3. Main features
• Similarities and differences between Russian formalism and new
criticism
• both rejected history
• they despised the liberal social criticism of reformers ( reject
moral aspect of literature)
• Both were interested in the “literariness” of the text. (what
qualities of form, language, or content differentiated it from non-
literary to literanayness)

4. Russian Formalism (1910-1930)
• It concentrates on the distinguishing features of literature as
reflected in devices , such as de-familiarization and
foregrounding.
• Vector shklovsky introduced the technique of Defamiliarization
(ostranenie)

5. Defamiliarization ( Russian formalism)
• “The technique of art is to make objects unfamiliar”, to make forms
difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the
process of perception is than an aesthetic in itself and must be
prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artful of an object; the
object is not important.
• [the purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are
perceived and not as they are known]
• (like the poem daffodils, gracian urn, the artists made them
defamiliarized and then perceived)
Saif andaaz e byan baat badal deta hai
Warna dunya main koi bat nahi bat nahi

6. New criticism
• It focuses on elements of literary languages. Such as ambiguity ,
irony , tension , texture.
• New criticism ally with imagist-poets (through images and symbols
you convey meaning)
• These new critics differed in their use of (irony, metaphor etc)

7. New criticism ( I.A. Richards )
• Growing influence of positivism threatened poetry as useless and
irrelevant resultantly I.A. Richard identified 2 uses of languages ;
scientific (it relate to facts, true and qualifies undistorted
references) and
• emotive ( fiction but it is used to effect emotions and attitudes
and may not qualify the reference) [April is the cruelest month
(wasteland) …..April is never the cruelest month but it is the
emotive use of language…this is allowed]

8. Q A
Ilyas Babar Awan
Lecturer in English
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