What is Formalism

What is Formalism / what is formalism in english literature.

Ans. As a sharp reaction against the banality of the everyday uses of the language in poetry of the present, the first two decades of the twentieth century saw a new literary theory, first in Russia and then in Czachoslovakia among the members of the Prague Linguistic Circles. The literary theory is known as formalism. This theory viewed literature as a specialised use of language which should be different from the ordinary language. The motive of this specialisation of language is to achieve what the formalists called ‘Literariness’. This literariness or literary virtues should be achieved through the practice of foregrounding.