1. Journal:
Think about your experiences with analysis/literary essays in the past. Describe this process. What sorts of things do you look for? How can you tell something is worth uncovering or analyzing in a text?

2. Stuff We Know to Pay Attention To in Analysis:

3. The Science of Literature
Formalism:
The Science of Literature

4. What is Formalism?
Relies solely on the text for analysis (no author biography, no historical background)
Breaks down literary/poetic devices
How they’re used
Why they’re used
Examines how the author is creating emotion within the text
Why is it funny/sad/infuriating?
What language creates this feeling?
Formalism requires understanding of the theme(s) present, the point of view from which stories are told, the meanings and etymology of significant words and character/location names, symbolism and the relationships between symbols and images, and much more. It is direct interaction with the text and exists outside the author’s biography and the cultural context.
In a Formalist critique of Fahrenheit 451 we would not consider the fact this was written in the 1950s in America at a time when the Red Scare and McCarthyism was at the forefront of power. We would not consider that the fears of the time period are echoed in this novel. What a Formalist critique would do; however, is focus on the themes of censorship and conformity. It would analyze the meaning of the epigraph, “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way,” and the significance of the chapter titles within the context of each section of the story. Formalism would examine the use of metaphor and symbolism, and the word choice and tone that Bradbury creates in order to convey emotion.
There is no additional research required, no outside sources (aside from a dictionary that includes word etymology), because a Formalist is directly interacting with the text alone as a living document.

5. Using Fahrenheit 451: Which of these examples would “Formalism” focus on?
The Epigraph?
Relevance of the book today?
McCarthyism/1950s culture?
Recurring Symbols?
Biographical Info?
Metaphor?
Titles and significance?
How themes are developed?

6. Why “Row, row, row your boat” is a poetic gem
Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a dream.
Repetition and syllable stress:
Mirrors a rower’s stroke
Creates a rhythm that can be felt
Poetic devices:
Second and fourth lines contain end rhyme
First line uses assonance between “row” and “boat”
Third line becomes onomatopoetic
Even the title is repeated, lending a stronger rhythm to the poem.
End rhyme is used in an alternating pattern to establish a sing-song feel, and stretches out the vowel sounds which were previously more round.
“Merrily” not only means pleasantly, but also melodiously, thus echoing that sing-song feel.

7. Why “Row, row, row your boat” is a poetic gem
Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a dream.
It’s your boat
Gives the audience control
Allows you to envision your own rowboat
It’s done “gently”
No sense of urgency
Goes with the literal flow of the stream
“Life is but a dream”
Focuses on the impermanence of all things

8. Big Concepts in Formalism
De-familiarization: an author presents something familiar in a strange or new way
Story vs. Plot:
Story: events in chronological order within a story
Plot: how the events within a story are told (ruptures in time and why they are used; cause and effect)
Poetic Language:
Examples: alliteration, meter, repetition, assonance/consonance, rhyme
Stylistic Devices:
Examples: allusion, metaphor, personification, hyperbole/understatement
Defamiliarization: examine the familiar in a strange/new way. Often uses figurative language to show a commonplace object in an unusual way. Example: in the novel My Struggle by the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard, the narrator describes a set of keys "splayed out on the telephone table, like some mythical beast at rest, with its head of leather and myriad metal legs." Who would have thought of keys as a mythical beast?
Story: Events in chronological order within a narrative
Plot: How the events within a story are told—what the motivation is—why flashback or forward is used, reasoning behind the actions and events
Practical Language: when the goal is simply to communicate. Example: I’m hungry.—We don’t look at the how or why, we just give you a sandwich so you don’t get hangry.
Poetic Language: Playing with words and sounds—it’s not just about communication, it’s about how you communicate (alliteration, assonance, rhyme, meter, repetition)
Form: structure of the text itself—how something is told or written, focusing on use of language and stylistic choices (that is allusion, metaphor, personification, point of view, hyperbole/understatement)—how and why are these used?

9. In Times of Peace by John Agard
That finger - index to be exact - so used to a trigger's warmth how will it begin to deal with skin that threatens only to embrace?
Those feet, so at home in heavy boots and stepping over bodies - how will they cope with a bubble bath when foam is all there is for ambush?
And what of hearts in times of peace? Will war-worn hearts grow sluggish like Valentine roses wilting without the adrenalin of a bullet's blood-rush?
When the dust of peace has settled on a nation, how will human arms handle the death of weapons? And what of ears, are ears so tuned to sirens that the closing of wings causes a tremor?
As for eyes, are eyes ready for the soft dance of a butterfly's bootless invasion?
Level One, Identifying: What poetic devices and figurative language do you notice? What words stand out to you as being descriptive and powerful?
Level Two, Analyzing: What meaning is shown in the examples of figurative language/poetic devices you found?
Level Three, Concluding: What purpose do these elements of poetry and literary devices serve?

10. Homework: Next Round of Dialectical Journals Chapters 8-14
Read Chapters 8-9 at home
Use the “Formalism Asks” handout to guide your Double Entry Journal Entries
Try out at least 1 Dialectical Journal Entry and bring it to next class. This round of dialectical journals must incorporate formalism by answering questions from the list I handed out at the beginning of class. We will go over them at the beginning of next class.