Formalism

“Functionalism – by all means is a strictly modern phenomenon but actually originates in classical antiquity” Giving the prodigious sense of a security but very different from that which is attained by the seeming immobility of the mass and weight of masonry. Concluded as one of the dominant successes of Woolworth, all will agree, it is an accomplishment of ‘scale’. Which assuming that the help of transformation the skyline of the city can be somehow added to the functions presumably from the…

A central notion is 'stratification', such that language is analysed in terms of four strata: Context, Semantics, Lexico-Grammar and Phonology-Graphology. Context concerns the Field (what is going on), Tenor (the social roles and relationships between the participants), and the Mode (aspects of the channel of communication, e.g., monologic/dialogic, spoken/written, +/- visual-contact, etc.). Systemic semantics includes what is usually called 'pragmatics'. Semantics is divided into three…

Ralph Waldo Emerson with Henry David Thoreau are known to be two main powerful as well as inspiring transcendalists novelists of the time. Emerson who was a professor, author as well as a writer is normally referred to as the founder of American transcendentalism. Transcendentalism in this case is used to signify a way of life that rejects the idea that understanding can be completely derived from practice and observation though to some extent truth dwells in the religious world. On the other…

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried presents an essentially contradictory narrative premise. Moreover, O’Brien presents himself as the protagonist, narrator, and author of the collection while declaring these roles mutually exclusive. Such oppositions force the reader to employ a synthetic and self-referential analysis to comprehend the internally oppositional narrative. In doing so, one finds that O’Brien’s systematic blurring of definitions accentuates his experiential perspective, rather…

various critical lenses. In this case, I will explore the poem through implementing the methods of New Criticism and Reader- Response Criticism, in which both methods are similar and different in their approaches to a text. New Criticism, part of Formalism, is an approach that examines a text just by the words on its page. There is no need for extra knowledge to read a text through in this theory, as biographical…

Stare decisis is a doctrine or strategy of subsequent regulations or principles laid down in previous legal decisions. It is the explanation that maintains that previous decisions which are to be followed by the courts. This strategy dictates that the court must abide or adhere to decided cases. Stare decisis is a legal rule which dictates that courts cannot disrespect the standard. The court must endorse prior decisions. In essence, this legal principle dictates that once a law has been…

Boris Groys. The Total Art of Stalinism: Avant-Garde, Aesthetic Dictatorship, and Beyond. Translated by Charles Rougle. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992. 126 pp., $13.49 (paper). The Total Art of Stalinism is not only a historical book on art, but it is also a political provocation of the well-known histories of 20th century Soviet art and literature. Originally published in German, this book was the first major work of Groys to have been translated into English. This…

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), was one of the most controversial artists during the twentieth century. His works relate to modern movements such as Cubism and Dadaism. His creation of the readymades was some of the most memorable and influential works of the time. Duchamp’s art works were produced during the Dada movement; a time that developed as a protest to the War. The war fought between July 28, 1914, and November 11, 1918, was known at the time as the Great War, the War to End War, and (in…

Postmodern architecture began in the late 1970 and continues to influence current architecture. Postmodernity in architecture is claimed to be foreshadowed by the appearance of "wit, ornament and reference" to architecture due to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. Other than that, postmodernism is also concerned on the idea of contextualism in the beginning of 20th century. Rowe and Koetter believed that postmodern architecture are often addressed the context in term…

interpreting the work of art in terms of its historical background which is regarded by the New Historicists as indispensable for a thorough interpretation of the work of literature. According to H. Aram Veeser, ''[T]he New Historicists combat empty formalism by pulling historical considerations to the center stage of literary analysis'' (X1). Their point of view is that a literary text echoes the historical circumstances out of which it emerged; hence, it is inescapable…