Russian formalism: Difference between revisions

The term "formalism" was first used by the adversaries of the movement, and as such it conveys a meaning explicitly rejected by the Formalists themselves. In the words of one of the foremost Formalists, [[Boris Eichenbaum]]: "It is difficult to recall who coined this name, but it was not a very [[felicitous]] coinage. It might have been convenient as a simplified battle cry but it fails, as an objective term, to delimit the activities of the 'Society for the Study of Poetic Language'."<ref>Boris Eichenbaum, "Vokrug voprosa o formalistah" (Russian: "Вокруг Вопроса о Фоpмалистах", Around the question on the Formalists), ''Pechat' i revolucija'', no. 5 (1924), pp. 2-3.</ref> Russian Formalism is the name now given to a mode of criticism which emerged from two different groups, The Moscow Linguistic Circle (1915) and the Opojaz group (1916). Although Russian Formalism is often linked to American New Criticism because of their similar emphasis on close reading, the Russian Formalists regarded themselves as a developers of a science of criticism and are more interested in a discovery of systematic method for the analysis of poetic text.