Russian Formalism: A Metapoetics

Peter Steiner

Published by Cornell University Press 2016

Russian Formalism

A Metapoetics

Peter Steiner
Funded by: National Endowment for the Humanities Open Book Program

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501707025

Overview
Contents

About this book

Russian Formalism, one of the twentieth century's most important movements in literary criticism, has received far less attention than most of its rivals. Examining Formalism in light of more recent developments in literary theory, Peter Steiner here offers the most comprehensive critique of Formalism to date. Steiner studies the work of the Formalists in terms of the major tropes that characterized their thought. He first considers those theorists who viewed a literary work as a mechanism, an organism, or a system. He then turns to those who sought to reduce literature to its most basic element—language—and who consequently replaced poetics with linguistics. Throughout, Steiner elucidates the basic principles of the Formalists and explores their contributions to the study of poetics, literary history, the theory of literary genre, and prosody. Russian Formalism is an authoritative introduction to the movement that was a major precursor of contemporary critical thought.

Author / Editor information

Peter Steiner is Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	7
Preface Open Access Download PDF	9
1. Who Is Formalism, What Is She? Open Access Download PDF	15
2. The Three Metaphors Open Access Download PDF	44
3. A Synecdoche Open Access Download PDF	138
4. The Developmental Significance of Russian Formalism Open Access Download PDF	242
Index Open Access Download PDF	271

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 278
Keywords: Literary Studies; Soviet & East European History

eBook

Published: November 1, 2016
ISBN: 9781501707025