Formalism was a school of literary criticism that originated in Russia in the early 20th century. It focused on analyzing the form and structure of texts rather than their context or themes. Formalists believed that literary language is distinct from ordinary language due to its use of defamiliarization, or making the familiar strange. They introduced concepts like fabula, the basic story, and syuzhet, the way it is presented, to distinguish literary from non-literary language. Propp analyzed Russian folktales and identified recurring patterns of characters and plot functions. Overall, formalism shifted emphasis to how writers manipulate form to achieve literary effects.