Russian Formalism, a movement of literary criticism and interpretation, emerged in Russia during the second decade of the twentieth century and remained active until about 1930. Members of what can be loosely referred to as the Formalist school emphasized first and foremost the autonomous nature of literature and consequently the proper study of literature as neither a reflection of the life of its author nor as by product of the historical or cultural background in which …showed first 75 words of 2516 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2516 total…The autonomy and concreteness of 'literariness' (not the individual work or literature) 3. Literary language deviates from and distorts practical/ordinary language - the function of it is that it makes us see differently 4. The form of a work of art is defined by its relation to other works of art, to forms existing prior to it. Important terms: 1. defamiliarization (ostranenie: 'making strange') 2. laying bare one's technique (the most literary of all) 3. sjuzet/fabula (story / discourse)