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Aesthetic Formalism, The Form of Artworks, and Formalist Criticism - A Handbook of Modernism Studies - Wiley Online Library

The chapter discusses different meanings of the terms "form" and "formalism" in aesthetic and literary theory. Specifically, "formalism" can refer to a theory about either what artworks accomplish or what they should achieve. The concept of formalism in aesthetics dates back to the Russian Formalists in the early 20th century. The author begins their definitional argument by referring to Kant's view that natural objects can be found beautiful through perceiving them as purposeful without an evident purpose.

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39 views3 pages

Aesthetic Formalism, The Form of Artworks, and Formalist Criticism - A Handbook of Modernism Studies - Wiley Online Library

The chapter discusses different meanings of the terms "form" and "formalism" in aesthetic and literary theory. Specifically, "formalism" can refer to a theory about either what artworks accomplish or what they should achieve. The concept of formalism in aesthetics dates back to the Russian Formalists in the early 20th century. The author begins their definitional argument by referring to Kant's view that natural objects can be found beautiful through perceiving them as purposeful without an evident purpose.

Uploaded by

Nancy Al-Assaf, PhD
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 24 A Handbook of

Modernism
Aesthetic Formalism, the Form of Studies

Artworks, and Formalist Criticism


Jonathan Loesberg

Book Editor(s):Jean-Michel Rabaté


Related Information

First published: 17 March 2013 |


https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118488638.ch24 | Citations: 1
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Summary Adorno and Literary

The words “form” and “formalism,” even when limited


to the contexts of aesthetic and literary theory, can
have different meanings and refer to ostensibly very
have different meanings and refer to ostensibly very
different formal objects. Specifically, “formalism” can
refer to an aesthetic theory about either what artworks
do or what they ought to do. The first use of the word
“formalism” in an aesthetic sense is dated to the
Russian Formalists. Given the work, not only of the
Russian Formalists, but of other New Critics, one can
doubt that that is the earliest such usage, but one
cannot doubt that the concept dates, as does the first
usage, to the rise of modernism in the early twentieth
century. From this coincidence of occurrence emerges
as causal, three related claims. To start his definitional
argument, the author turns to Kant's famous claim
that aesthetic apprehension finds natural objects
beautiful when it perceives them as having
purposiveness without purpose.

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