Russian Formalism 

What is Russian Formalism?

Russian formalism is a school of literary criticism popular in Russia from 1910s to 1930s. The exponents of Russian formalism are victor Shklovsky, Roman Jacobson, Gregory Gukovsky, Boris Eickenbaum, Vladimir Propp. The term 'Russian Formalism' was first coined by the adversaries of the movement. 'Formalism' has come from 'ism' (theory) of form. It means the study of literary form. Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Jacobson revolustionized the literary criticism in Russia between 1914s and 1930s by establishing the specificity and autonomy of poetic language and literature. Russian formalism is distinctive for its emphasis on the functional role of literary devices and its original conception of literary history. Russian Formalists advocated a "scientific" method for studying poetic language, to the exclusion of traditional psychological and cultural-historical approaches. 

Russian Formalism exerted a major influence on thinkers like Mikhail Bakhtin and Yuri Lotman. According to Russian formalists, form is more important than the content (subject matter). Technique is more important than the subject matter. The use of technique in fiction and plays is more important than the theme of the plays or fictions. The battle of cry of Russian formalism was to delimit the literary scholarship from other disciples. The formalists focus on literariness of a text. 

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Carnivalesque

What is Automalization? 

Automalization is the use of traditional techniques. It means that a traditional technique is used in novels and plays. That's why, a traditional technique is very common in all kinds of poetry and fictions.

What is Defamiliarization?

Viktor Shklovsky used the term in 'Art as Device'. Defamiliarization is the technique where familiar things are strange to us. If any familiar things become very difficult or unconventional, then it would be expected to be able for a good success.

Russian Formalism as a Literary Theory 

What is Laying Bare?

The formation of literature is hidden from the products the literary techniques are visible to readers we find the family are techniques in Bertolt Brechet's drama Mother Courage. Then the audience becomes concers of the message when a novel is different from others then the audience would focus on the novel.

What is Motif ?

Moti piece the smallest unit of literary text. In James Joyce's Arabia and J.M. Synge's Riders to the Sea, there are so many elements of motif. There are two types of motif - Bound Motif and Free Motif.

1) Bound Motif:-

Bound Motif is a motif that has a purpose. We see in J.M. Synge's Riders to the Sea that Bartley is going to the Galway Fair. Bartley and Galway Fair are the Bound motifs. Here is a purpose of giving these two names.

2) Free Motif:- 

Free Motif is not demanded by the text. The things or matters do not have any necessary in text. In many plays and novels there are many scenes that are interpolated and unnecessary. This is free Motif.

What is plot and story?

Plot (Mythos/Suzhet):- 

plot is the arrangement of incidents. In a drama, there are so many plots where incidents are sequentially arranged as the story goes forward. According to Aristotle, plot consists of free motives.

Story (Fabula):- 

Story is the raw material of a plot. A story goes with the demands of the necessary plot.

What is Carnivalesque?

Mikhail Bakhtin first coined the term'Carnivalesque'. The source of this term is Dostoevsky's Problems of Poetics and In Rabelis and his world. The term 'Carnivalesque' is used to refer to a particular literary mode that liberates the assumptions and dominant style of atmosphere to humour and chaos. Carnivalisk is related to feast of fools. It is a medieval festival held around the first of January consisting with the feast of circumcision where the performance of burlesques of the sacred ceremony was ensured. Through this term we find that the term carnival means fair. The social hierarchy does not function. This is used in the novels and poems by Dostoevsky, a novelist. In Rabelis and his world, Mikhail Bakhtin finds this thing. Death is the greatest Carnivalesque where Social hierarchy does not function.

Read in detail about Carnivalesque.

What is Chronotope?

Heteroglossey and chronotope are dealt with dialogic imagination. chronotope is the relation between the time and space. Everything exists within time and space. The chronotope between time and space are internally represented in language. According to Bhaktin, for the analysis of language, the ratio is the characteristic of the temporal and passional representation that language should be analysed. Time becomes the character and space becomes a background. The primary category of chronotope is time. The time and space are interrelated.

What is polyphony? 

Polyphony means 'multiple perspectives'. polyphony is the ingredient of dialogue and element of biology exam these are depicted with different point of view. In post modernist plays, novels and poems, there are polyphony.

What is Dialogism?

By dialogism backed means biologyic word that beards biology relation with other words of literature and other authors. In linguistics, dialogue is a means biologic relation of languages. According to Bhaktin, every language is used in dialogism. The use of language in such a way in which the characters and narrators are different they have their different will.

What is collective unconsciousness?

Carl Jung has coined and defined the term 'Collective unconsciousness'. It is a seat of primal memories to the human trees existing below each persons conscious mind.