Russian Formalism
Russian Formalism was a literary movement and primarily a school of literary criticism / theory which developed in Russia in the early twentieth century. The leading members of the Russian Formalism included Boris Eichenbaum , Roman Jacobson , Vladimir Propp , and Viktor Shklovsky . According to Rene' Wellek, the movement sharply emphasizes the difference between literature and life, it rejects the usual biographical, psychological, and sociological explanations for literature. Although the practitioners of this method had diverse way of approaching formalism, the general idea that these critics focused on poetic techniques, language and the structure of literature . This was an attempt at making the study of literature more scientific. They focused on the texts themselves, giving less attention to authorial intent, biographical information, and cultural/historical significance. One of the goals was to distinguish literary language from all other language. One of the key principle...