Russian Formalism
•Major names : Boris Eichenbaum, Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Jakobson and Juri Tynyanov
•Major works: Osip Brik, Eichenbaum and Sklovsky’s Poetics (1919), Sklovsky’s On the Theory of Prose , Vladimir’s Morphology of the Folktale (1928)
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•Defamiliarization: (given by Sklovsky) – use of language in such a way that ordinary objects would appear extraordinary.
Poetry a supreme example
Later looked at ways in which language of fiction produced the effect of defamiliarization.
Sklovsky’s essay- Art as Technique – treated Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy as a work which drew attention towards the act of literary writing.
The Prague School
Central figure- Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson and Metaphor- Metonymy
•Metaphor – an act of substitution through selection and association – eg if you say ‘ he was crawling along the road . You have used the word crawling where you could have used walking or moving etc.
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•Metonymy: when one part is substituted for the whole – eg the orders were issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan. This is a building which does not issue orders. It is the president who lives in it and issues orders. So, we have substituted a part (president) for a whole (Rashtrapati Bhawan. This is the principle of combination
Selection and combination are the two processes of language operation.
Jakonson's Model of Communication
Context(referential) -----------(language used)
Message (poetic)
Addresser (emotive)---------------------------- Addressee (conative) ------- (my friend)
| Contact (phatic) --------- (letter- handwritten/email)
| code (metalingual) ---------( writing)
(Myself)
Points to note and remember :
1.Central figure of Russian formalism
2.Works
3.Concept of defamiliarization- by whom?
4.Concept of metaphor and metonymy- by whom?
5.Model of communication and the dominant function- by whom?
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