Abstract

Formalist Criticism
Howe, Irving | July 16, 1949 issue

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The article focuses on the book "Theory of Literature," by René Wellek and Austin Warren. This book is a serious and impressive statement of a theory of literature which for lack of a better label may be called formalist. As such it is of considerable value, codifying views of a major contemporary critical tendency. In its organization, however, it suffers from a certain confusion of direction. Though disavowing any intention to produce a textbook, authors have written about a third of their work as a textbook précis. Their chapters on bibliographical methods, literary genres and such matters as euphony, metaphor and meter offer useful information but are hardly integrated into their theoretical structure.

See Also:

THEORY of Literature (Book); WARREN, Austin; WELLEK, Rene; LITERATURE; ORGANIZATION; FIGURES of speech; METAPHOR
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