35-50

Literature's evolution is deeply influenced by Continental European thought, particularly from Russia.
Key developments began in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the early 20th century, moving to Prague in the 1920s due to political repression in Russia and later influencing France post-World War II.
The formalist movement in Russia operated independently from British and American literary traditions.
Key figures include Roman Jakobson, whose translation into English influenced Western academia.

The term 'formal method' reflects the formalists' focus primarily on the structure of literature, particularly poetry.
Viktor Shklovsky argued that literature helps perceive the world differently ('de-familiarization'), revitalizing familiar concepts through novel presentations.
- Quote: "Art exists that one may recover the sensation of life. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known."
Formalists prioritized understanding how literature operates to create these effects, moving beyond mere reflection of reality.

Early formalists, starting around 1914, sought to define 'literariness' as what distinguishes literary texts from non-literary texts.
The aim was to formulate a scientific basis for understanding literature, emphasizing general rules rather than specific texts.
Boris Eichenbaum noted the goal was to create an independent literary science based on unique properties of literary material.

Poetry defamiliarizes ordinary language, causing readers to perceive the world anew.
Methods of defamiliarization:
- Use of repetition, alliteration, rhyme, and particular structures that challenge ordinary expressions.
- Emphasis on ambiguity, utilizing multiple meanings and associations inherent in words.
The formalists argued that poetry's unique characteristics prompt readers to recognize the medium of language itself.

Formalists contrasted poetry's defamiliarization methods with those of fiction, suggesting that fiction achieves effects through narrative structure rather than linguistic devices alone.
Fiction's impact arises from 'fabula' (plot) vs. 'syuzhet' (storytelling), focusing on how tales are told rather than what they tell.
Example of a detective novel highlights how plotting can create suspense through manipulated storytelling.

Fabula: the raw narrative or plot; e.g., a murder mystery.
Syuzhet: the arrangement or telling of that narrative; e.g., starting with the detective's introduction instead of the murder.
These concepts underline the manipulation of plots within diverse narrative structures.

Propp identified common functions and roles in folktales, noting similarities despite differing characters.
He introduced functions such as 'helper,' providing a structural analogy across various stories.
The notion of characters being interchangeable based on their narrative functions became crucial in understanding storytelling.

The formalists and subsequent structuralists viewed literature as an interconnected system where no single element is isolated.
Understanding literature requires recognizing the functions of all constituents within a text.
This perspective underscores the necessity of context and interrelation of literary devices to achieve desired effects.

Literature renews itself through emerging genres and changing audiences, with defamiliarization playing a critical role in this evolution.
Eichenbaum proclaimed literature's history must be viewed as a self-evolving phenomenon rather than through individual authorship.

The Prague school, influenced by formalism and linguistics, expanded upon the interdependence of textual elements.
They introduced the concept of 'foregrounding,' highlighting how certain elements draw attention while rendering others less prominent.
Jakobson's principles underscored the organization of literary works through the process of selection and combination in constructing meaning.

Jakobson formulated a definition of 'literariness' rooted in the dual axes of language: selection and combination.
- The axis of selection refers to the choice of words, while the axis of combination refers to how those words are arranged.
This framework seeks to explain how literature operates distinctly from everyday language through structural principles.