Formalism/Structuralism/New Criticism (What you don’t know that you already know)

Before New Criticism/Formalism New Crit (including Formalism) was dominant in 1940-60s – it’s still the basis for most high school and undergrad literary teaching. Before NC, thinkers were mostly concerned with authorial intent – the meaning the author had in mind when he/she was creating the text. How do you ‘discover’ the authorial intent? Letters, diaries, biographical information, etc.

“The text itself” “The text itself” became the most important phrase for New Critics – the author’s life and times don’t provide critics with the info we need to analyze the text itself. Key idea of New Criticism: a literary work is a timeless, self-sufficient verbal object. Readers and readings may change, but the literary text stays the same. Question: How do we really know what Shakespeare intended us to think of Macbeth? Answer: We don’t.

The Two Fallacies New Critics Reject 1. Intentional Fallacy: the mistaken belief that the author’s intention is the same as the text’s meaning. Example: I’ve read Fitzgerald’s diaries, so I know what The Great Gatsby is all about. 2. Affective Fallacy: the error of judging a text on its emotional effects on the reader. Example: I respond to Baba in The Kite Runner based on how I feel about my own dad, so I think I’ve correctly analyzed the character/novel.

Close Reading The only way to know if an author’s intent or a reader’s interpretation actually = the text’s meaning is a close reading of the text’s formal elements. Important: New Critics recognize that all writers work in literary language, which is different than everyday language and scientific language (both rely on denotation, and have practical purposes).

What are texts working towards? Organic unity: all the formal elements work together to establish the theme. Text provides both the complexity that a literary work must have (because life is complicated) and the order that we humans seek (to make sense of our own lives).

1. Paradox statement that seems contradictory but represents the actual way things are. Example: “You don’t know what you’ve got til its gone” (you have to lose the physical thing to gain the spiritual finding)

2. Irony statement or event undermined by the context in which it occurs. Also includes varying perspectives on the same events or characters.

3. Ambiguity when a word, image or event generates two or more different meanings

4. Tension linking together of opposites, or embodying general ideas in specific images. Concrete universals are tension because they hold together the specific, small world of the text and the larger, symbolic reality.

Other key areas from fig. lang Images Symbols Metaphors Similes

A few more things to watch out for: Diction: Denotation (literal def. of words) Connotation (how context alters meaning) Etymology (word’s origin & evolution) Allusions (references to other works)

Formalism Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EryDcM1q1g

Let’s Try It Out! For fun: There is a Girl Inside Lucille Clifton   There is a girl inside. She is randy as a wolf. She will not walk away and leave these bones to an old woman. She is a green tree in a forest of kindling. She is a green girl in a used poet. She has waited patient as a nun for the second coming, when she can break through gray hairs into blossom and her lovers will harvest 
honey and thyme 
and the woods will be wild 
with the damn wonder of it. For fun: Underline what you think are the FIVE most important words…be prepared to explain your choices!

Let’s Try It Out! Working with a partner, try to find: Paradox Irony There is a Girl Inside Lucille Clifton   There is a girl inside. She is randy as a wolf. She will not walk away and leave these bones to an old woman. She is a green tree in a forest of kindling. She is a green girl in a used poet. She has waited patient as a nun for the second coming, when she can break through gray hairs into blossom and her lovers will harvest 
honey and thyme 
and the woods will be wild 
with the damn wonder of it. Working with a partner, try to find: Paradox Irony Ambiguity Tension Also, try to answer these questions, and WHY each matters: The change in punctuation Any religious elements Any animal imagery Colour imagery Farming/Nature imagery Finally, what’s the theme of the poem?