Formalisti
Formalisti, usually known in English as the Russian Formalists, were a group of literary theorists active in Russia from the 1910s to the 1920s. They sought to study literature primarily through its formal features—how a text constructs meaning through devices, structure, and technique—rather than through its subject matter, author biography, or social context. Their aim was to define literariness as a distinct quality produced by form.
They emerged from networks such as the Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OPOJAZ) and the
Key concepts associated with the Formalists include defamiliarization (ostranenie), a claim that art makes the familiar
Prominent figures include Viktor Shklovsky, Dmitry Tomashevsky, Boris Eikhenbaum, and Yuri Tynyanov, with later influence from