New Criticism &
Formalism
Austin, Nora, and Molly
.
*Formalism and New Criticism look at how something
was written, looking at the literary tools like metaphor,
symbolism, and characters as opposed to the message
or what the author was trying to say. Both types of
criticism treat the piece of writing as something
completely independent and interprets it without the
inclusion of any outside information
New Criticism is actually a type of Formalism. The
main difference is that Formalists were originally
Russian and New Critics were American.
History
New Criticism became popular in the 1940’s and
50’s, as did Formalism, which began in the 20’s and
reached it’s popularity in the 40’s and 50’s.
It was mostly a reaction to romanticist theories
that, “centered on the artist and individual creative
genius, and instead placed the text itself back into
the spotlight, to show how the text was indebted to
forms and other works that had preceded it(
Wikipedia).”
Both of these methods answer questions regarding
what a piece of writing has in itself, acting as a
separate object, and how the writing uses tools and
strategies within itself.
Pros:
*close reading of the writing
*learn/apply writing tools and
elements such as symbolism,
metaphor, imagery, irony….
*can be done without research of
the writing
Cons:
*The writing is out of context, which
can causes it to lose meaning to the
reader.
*“It tends to reduce literature to
little more than a collection of
rhetorical devices (Aljohani).”
My Father and the Fig Tree
The repetition of the mention of the fig tree
brings about its importance in the poem.
The final section in which the father gets the fig
tree acts as the conclusion of the poem by tying
it all together.
The fig tree acts as a symbol of desire.
“…weaving folktales like vivid little scarves.”simile
Works Cited
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_form.html
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_newcrit.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalism_(literature)
http://mesastate.edu/~blaga/Theory/Form.html
http://icons.mysitemyway.com/wp-content/gallery/glowing-green-neon-icons-business/.png
http://theuglytruth.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/thumbs-up1.jpg
http://designious.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/red-and-black-background.jpg
http://www.obit-mag.com/media/image/fig-tree.jpg
http://www.treehugger.com/book-lending-2swap.jpg