2. What are the main tenets and characteristics of New Criticism and
Moral Formalism?
1. The literary text has primary importance.
2. Criticism should be scientific and objective.
3. Great literature has organic unity. In organic unity the parts work
together to create a beautiful whole.
4. Literary works are the vessels in which human values are
transmitted. The study and appreciation of literature is a pre-condition
to the health of society.
5. Literature is a weapon in the battle of cultural politics.
3. What are the main tenets and characteristics of New Criticism and Moral
Formalism?
6. Form and content are equally important.
6. Good literature is of timeless significance. It somehow transcends
the limitations and peculiarities of the age it was written. It speaks to
what is constant in human nature. Such writing is 'not for an age, but
for all time.
7. The New Critics warned against the affective fallacy, intentional
fallacy, and the heresy of paraphrase.
4. âMetaphorsâ by Sylvia Plath
âą Iâm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loafâs big with its yeasty rising.
Moneyâs new-minted in this fat purse.
Iâm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
Iâve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train thereâs no getting off.
5. ïApply the New Critical approach to Sylvia Plathâs Metaphors:
ïExplain organic unity in Sylvia Plathâs Metaphors:
In organic unity the parts work together to create a beautiful whole.
In Sylvia Plathâs âMetaphors,â for example, we have organic unity. The
poem is a riddle about pregnancy. It consists of nine lines and each
line has nine syllables. Even the images in the poem such as melon,â
âelephant,â âponderous house,â and âa cow in a calfâ work together to
give us a beautiful picture of pregnancy.
6. What are the main tenets and characteristics
of Russian Formalism:
1. The literary text has primary importance.
2. Criticism should be scientific and objective.
3. Art defamiliarizes reality. It makes familiar things unfamiliar.
4. Literature practices controlled violence upon language.
5. Form is more important than content.
6. Objects have several aesthetic and non-aesthetic functions.
7. According to Russian Formalists objects have
several aesthetic and non-aesthetic functions:
âą According to Russian formalists, the same object can possess several
functions: a church may be both a place of worship and a work of art.
Fashions may possess social, political, erotic and aesthetic functions.
A political speech, a biography, a letter and a piece of propaganda
may or may not possess aesthetic value in different societies and
periods. The domestic functions of Greek vases, and the military
function of breastplates have been subordinated in modern times to
a primarily aesthetic function.
8. ïApply the Russian Formalist approach to Sylvia Plathâs Metaphorsâ
ïExplain Defamilarization in Sylvia Platâs âMetaphors.â
ïAccording to the Russain formalists, art defamiliarizes reality. In Sylvia
Plathâs âMetaphors,â for example, pregnancy is defamilairized by using
metaphors such as âelephant,â ponderous house,â melonâ and a âcow in
a calfâ to make us see pregnancy in an unfamiliar and a beautiful
way.
9. What is literary criticism?
âą Literary criticism is the process of assessing and evaluating, explaining
and interpreting the literary text by using one theory or another.
10. Explain Platoâs view of poetry:
In his âRepublic,â Plato attacked poetry because he believed that:
1. poetry manipulates human feelings and emotions.
2. poetry is two-times removed from reality.
11. Explain Aristotleâs view of poetry.
In his âpoetics,â Aristotle defended poetry because he believed that:
1. poetry expresses human feelings and emotions.
2. Poetry reflects reality.
12. âą The unsettling nature of âMetaphorsâ (The Colossus, William
Heinemann Limited, 1960)arises from the dichotomy of Plathâs tone
and the images she chooses to convey her mentality. Initially, she
playfully compares her pregnant state to an âelephant,â a âhouse,â a
ripening âmelon,â and a âyeastyâ loaf of bread. However, starting with
the sixth line, it becomes clear that beneath these pithy musings run
the undercurrents of anxiety. Plath begins to see herself merely as a
âmeansââalmost an incubator, with no other worth besides that of
birthing offspring. This culminates with the last line, where she
realizes that she is forever changed, irrevocably. Her pregnancy was
only the beginning of the train-ride; she must now become a mother.