ENGLISH 10

FORMALISM: LOOKING FOR CONNECTIONS

LEARNING SKILLS
A. Most Essential Learning Competency:
Critique a literary text using a formalist approach
B. Objectives:
1.Analyze a literary selection using a reading log;
2.Write a formalist literary criticism or essay on a literary selection

INTRODUCTORY CONCEPT

Literary criticism is the comparison, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation

of works of literature. It is essentially an opinion, supported by evidence, relating to the
theme, style, setting or historical or political context. (Dickinson Waidner-Spahr Library,
2020)
Researching, reading, and writing works of literary criticism will help you to: a.make
better sense of the work; b. form judgments about literature; c. study ideas from different
points of view; and d. determine on an individual level whether a literary work is worth
reading. (Dickinson Waidner-Spahr Library, 2020)
There are several approaches to literary criticism namely formalism, structuralism,
Marxism, historicism, cultural studies, psychoanalytic, gender studies/queer theory, reader
response, and more. Today you will learn how to critique literary works using formalism.

Things to Remember in Formalist Approach:

(Note: Text means literary work such as short story, novel, poem, drama, or film.)
1. Formalist criticism analyzes only one work/literary text at a time.
2. It analyzes the structure of a text without looking at ‘outside’ factors such as the
author, historical & cultural background, etc.
3. This approach requires close reading.
4. This approach looks for patterns within the text.
5. It does not list down elements of fiction, instead, explains how the characters,
setting, plot, images, symbols, and theme relate to each other and how their ‘coming
together’ create meaning.
6. It examines form, diction, and unity.
a. Form can be examined in the work’s recurrences, repetitions, relationships,
motifs—all the organizational devices that create the total effect. It answers the
questions: What words, images, actions, and feelings are repeated on the text?
How are they related to the theme and to the other elements? What is the effect
of the repetition to the whole text?
b. Diction is the choice of words, imagery, and symbol that a writer makes to
effectively convey an idea, a point of view, or tell a story.
c. If a work has unity, all its aspects fit together in significant ways that create a
whole. Each element contributes to the totality of the work and its meaning.
7. Here are some of the typical questions in formalist criticism:
a. How does the narrator’s point of view shape the meaning?

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 b. How do the characters, setting, imagery and plot relate to the theme and to each
other?
c. How are the various parts of the work interconnected?
d. How do these parts and their collective whole contribute to or not contribute to
the aesthetic quality of the work?
e. What words, images, and symbols appear more than once or have a certain
effect in the text?

ACTIVITIES
Read the short story Vanka by Russian fictionist Anton Chekhov and
complete the activities that follow.
Vanka
Anton Chekhov
NINE-YEAR-OLD Vanka Zhukov, walked round and round the estate,
who had been apprenticed three months sounding his rattle. After him, with drooping
ago to Alyakhin the shoemaker, did not go heads, went old Kashtanka and another
to bed on Christmas eve. He waited till his dog, called Eel, on account of his black coat
master and mistress and the senior and long, weasel-like body. Eel was
apprentices had gone to church, and then wonderfully respectful and insinuating, and
took from the cupboard a bottle of ink and a turned the same appealing glance on
pen with a rusty nib, spread out a crumpled friends and strangers alike, but he inspired
sheet of paper, and was all ready to write. confidence in no one. His deferential
Before tracing the first letter he glanced manner and docility were a cloak for the
several times anxiously at the door and most Jesuitical spite and malice. He was an
window, peered at the dark icon, with adept at stealing up, to snap at a foot,
shelves holding cobbler's lasts stretching on creeping into the ice-house, or snatching a
either side of it, and gave a quivering sigh. peasant's chicken. His hind-legs had been
The paper lay on the bench, and Vanka slashed again and again, twice he had
knelt on the floor at the bench. been strung up, he was beaten within an
"Dear Grandad Konstantin inch of his life every week, but he survived
Makarich," he wrote. "I am writing a letter to it all.
you. I send you Christmas greetings and Grandad was probably standing at
hope God will send you his blessings. I the gate at this moment, screwing up his
have no Father and no Mummie and you eves to look at the bright red light coming
are all I have left." from the church windows, or stumping
Vanka raised his eves to the dark about in his felt boots, fooling with the
window-pane, in which the reflection of the servants. His rattle would be fastened to his
candle flickered, and in his imagination belt. He would be throwing out his arms and
distinctly saw his grandfather, Konstantin hugging himself against the cold, or, with
Makarich, who was night watchman on the his old man's titter, pinching a maid, or one
estate of some gentlefolk called Zhivarev. of the cooks. "Have a nip," he would say,
He was a small, lean old man about holding out his snuffbox to the women.
sixty-five but remarkably lively and agile, The women would take a pinch and
with a smiling face and eves bleary with sneeze. Grandfather would be overcome
drink. In the daytime he either slept in the with delight, breaking out into jolly laughter,
back kitchen, or sat joking with the cook and shouting:
and the kitchen-maids, and in the night, "Good for frozen noses!"
wrapped in a great sheepskin coat, he

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 Even the dogs would be given snuff. thought I would run away on foot to the
Kashtanka would sneeze, shake her head village, but I have no boots and I was afraid
and walk away, offended. But Eel, too polite of the frost. And when I grow up to be a
to sneeze, would wag his tail. And the man I will look after you and I will not let
weather was glorious. The air still, anyone hurt you and when you die, I will
transparent. fresh. It was a dark night, but pray for your soul like I do for my Mummie.
the whole village with its white roofs, the "Moscow is such a big town there
smoke rising from the chimneys, the trees, are so many gentlemen’s houses and such
silver with rime, the snow-drifts, could be a lot of horses and no sheep and the dogs
seen distinctly. The sky was sprinkled with are not a bit fierce. The boys don’t go about
gaily twinkling stars, and the Milky Way with the star at Christmas and they don’t let
stood out as clearly as if newly scrubbed for you sing in church and once I saw them
the holiday and polished with snow.... selling fish-hooks in the shop all together
Vanka sighed, dipped his pen in the with the lines and for any fish you like very
ink, and went on writing: good ones and there was one would hold a
"And yesterday I had such a hiding. sheat-fish weighing thirty pounds and I
The master took me by the hair and have seen shops where there are all sorts
dragged me out into the yard and beat me of guns just like the master has at home
with the stirrup-strap because by mistake I they must cost a hundred rubles each. And
went to sleep rocking their baby. And one in the butchers’ shops there are grouse and
day last week the mistress told me to gut a wood-cock and hares but the people in the
herring and I began from the tail and she shop don’t say where they were shot.
picked up the herring and rubbed my face "Dear Grandad when they have a
with the head. The other apprentices make Christmas tree at the big house take a
fun of me, they send me to the tavern for gilded nut for me and put it away in the
vodka and make me steal the masters’ green chest. Ask Miss Olga Ignatvevna tell
cucumbers and the master beats me with her it’s for Vanka."
the first thing he finds. And there is nothing Vanka gave a sharp sigh and once
to eat. They give me bread in the morning more gazed at the windowpane. He
and gruel for dinner and in the evening remembered his grandfather going to get a
bread again, but I never get tea or cabbage Christmas tree for the gentry, and taking his
soup they gobble it all rip themselves. And grandson with him. Oh, what happy times
they make me sleep in the passage and those had been! Grandfather would give a
when their baby cries, I don’t get any sleep chuckle, and the frost-bound wood
at all I have to rock it. Dear Grandad for the chuckled, and Vanka, following their
dear Lords sake take me away from here example, chuckled, too. Before chopping
take me home to the village I can’t bear it down the fir-tree, Grandfather would smoke
any longer. Oh, Grandad I beg and implore a pipe, take a long pinch of snuff, and laugh
you and I will always pray for you do take at the shivering Vanka... The young fir-
me away from here or I'll die... " trees, coated with frost, stood motionless,
Vanka's lips twitched, he rubbed his waiting to see which one of them was to
eyes with a black fist and gave a sob. die. And suddenly a hare would come
"I will grind your snuff for you," he leaping over a snow-drift, swift as an
went on. "I will pray for you and you can arrow... Grandfather could never help
flog me as hard as you like if I am naughty. shouting:
And if you think there is nothing for me to "Stop it, stop it ... stop it! Oh, you
do, I will ask the steward to take pity on me stub-tailed devil!"
and let me clean the boots or I will go as a Grandfather would drag the tree to
shepherd-boy instead of Fedya. Dear the big house, and they would start
Grandad, I can’t stand it. It is killing me. I decorating it... Miss Olga Ignatyevna,

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Vanka's favorite, was the busiest of all. had bought the day before for a kopek...
While Pelageva, Vanka's mother, was alive Then he paused to think, dipped his pen
and in service at the big house, Olga into the ink-pot, wrote: "To Grandfather in
Ignatyevna used to give Vanka sweets, and the village," scratched his head, thought
amuse herself by teaching him to read, again, then added:
write and count to a hundred, and even to "TO KONSTANTIN MAKARICH"
dance the quadrille. But when Pelageya Pleased that no one had prevented
died, the orphaned Vanka was sent down to him from writing, he put on his cap and ran
the back kitchen to his grandfather, and out into the sheet without putting his coat
from there to Moscow, to Alyakhin the on over his shirt.
shoemaker... The men at the butcher's told him,
"Come to me dear Grandad," when he asked them the day before, that
continued Vanka. "I beg you for Christs letters are put into letter-boxes, and from
sake take me away from here. Pity me these boxes sent all over the world on mail
unhappy orphan they beat me all the time coaches with three horses and drunken
and I am always hungry, and I am so drivers and jingling bells. Vanka ran as far
miserable here I can’t tell you I cry all the as the nearest letter-box and dropped his
time. And one day the master hit me over precious letter into the slit...
the head with a last and I fell down and An hour later, lulled by rosy hopes,
thought I would never get rip again. I have he was fast asleep... He dreamed of a
such a miserable life worse than a dog’s. stove. On the stove-ledge sat his
And I send my love to Alyona one-eyed grandfather, his bare feet dangling, reading
Yegor and the coachman and don’t give my the letter to the cooks... Eel was walking
concertina to anyone. I remain your backwards and forwards in front of the
grandson Ivan Zhukov dear Grandad do stove, wagging his tail... -1886-
come." Source:ceibiblio.org:
Vanka folded the sheet of paper in https://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/ac/vanka.html
four and put it into an envelope which he

READING LOG FOR VANKA BY ANTON CHEKOV

Complete the following reading logs. To prove your answers, quote from the short
story. Some answers and guide questions are provided in the response/answer section but
must be elaborated. You may need to read the short story more than once.

A. Practice Task 1. Form (Recurrences, Repetitions, Relationships, And Motifs)

QUESTION ANSWER
1. What is/are the theme/s of the short Innocence, Loneliness, Family, Abuse, Poverty
story Vanka?
2. What images, symbols, character/s,
events, etc. relate to the theme?
3. What is the significance of the title,
Vanka, to the theme of the story?
4. How would the meaning change if the Point of view is 3rd person point of view or an observer
story is told by Vanka?
5. What are the actions (thoughts) and

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 motivations of Vanka?
6. How do they relate/contribute to the
theme of the story?
7. What is the setting and how did it
influence the actions of Vanka?
8. How is the plot narrated? How does it Vanka is a frame story—it means that it is a ‘story
affect the meaning of the story? within a story’. a. The main plot shows Vanka writing a
letter. b. Then his memory of his grandfather is
narrated by the 3rd person narrator c. while his
experiences with his master are narrated/written by
Vanka in his letter. The plot moves from present to
past and vice versa.
9. What recurrences of words, images,
and symbols do you notice?
10. What can you say about the The ending implies that Vanka’s letter will not reach
dénouement or ending? his grandfather because the address in incomplete.

Practice Task 2. Diction (Words, Imagery, And Symbol)

QUESTION ANSWER
1. What words and phrases appear more Christmas; take me away; I will ___; grandad /
than once? Do their meanings change grandfather; dog(s), (add some more)
with following use? How?
2. What words suggest meanings they do
not explicitly state?
3. Do you find ambiguity ‘something that is Can we say that Vanka’s view of the people around is
open for other interpretation’? reliable? Biased? Why? Are they open for other
interpretation? How?
4. What are the important symbols? Christmas tree, the dogs, the snow, the letter, the
5. What would they mean? window

Practice Task 3. Unity

QUESTION ANSWER
1. What element(s) knit/put the story
together thus creating unity? How?
2. What images are extended or Vanka writing a letter, the snow, the dog
elaborated or shown throughout the
story? What is its effect to the story?
3. What are the important symbols, and Do the symbols relate to the character? The theme?
how do they create unity? How?
The reading log was designed with inputs from Theory into Practice by Anne D. Bodie. (Bodie, 2012)

B. Assessment

Using the questions on the above reading logs as a reference, write a short
formalist criticism or essay on a short story that you have read in class or in your

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modules. You may follow the sequence in the reading log or start with the
question/answer in the log that interests you most.
Write one paragraph for the introduction. Here you will include the title of the
selection, the author, and the theme of the short story (or a 1-2 sentence summary). If you
want to start with what interests you most, answer the question in paragraph form.
Then, compose the body of the essay with the help of the questions in the reading
log. Prove your answers by quoting lines from the short story.
Lastly, end with a conclusion. The conclusion must show that the elements of the
short story relate to the theme and how the elements help create the meaning of the story.
Below is the rubric for scoring.

CRITERIA POINTS
Content – Clear topic, body with supporting details, good introduction, strong conclusion 20
Presentation – Logical organization, one idea one paragraph, clear introduction & conclusion 20
Mechanics – Few errors in grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and spelling 20
Application of the theory – answers formalist questions (like the questions in the reading
log), shows connections among elements, does not enumerate, elements but shows how the 40
coming together of the elemnets create meaning,

REFERENCES
 Bodie, A. D. (2012). Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. Boston MA:
Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
 Chekhov, A. (1886). Vanka by Anton Chekhov. Retrieved from ibiblio.org:
https://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/ac/vanka.html
 Dickinson Waidner-Spahr Library. (2020, August). Criticism: Literature, Film & Drama:
Literature Criticism. Retrieved from Dickinson.edu: https://libguides.dickinson.edu/criticism