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Formalistic Approach to My Father and the Fig Tree

Formalism arose in the 1920s and 1930s, flourished formalists study how literature works, not what literature is about during the 1940s and 1950s, and are still in evidence today.

"My Father and the Fig Tree," by Naomi

Shihab Nye uses the motif of a fig tree

to emphasize the sense of security that was missing for so long, until the end of the peom, when

the father finally finds a fig tree. The poem also includes imagery to describe the ideal fig that the

father is in search for.

Cons

Pros

  • Can be done without any research
  • Emphasizes value of literature (makes it timeless
  • Gives a close reading of the writing
  • The text is isolated
  • It ignores the content of the work
  • "It tends to reduce the literature to little more than a colection of rhetorical, stylistic devices"

New criticism became popular during the years of 1940-1950. It appealed to the people who wanted the criticism to be centers on the artist and the individual. It made the text the center of attention rather than depending on the other factors of the piece of literature.

New Criticism

New Criticism disqualifies many possibly fruitful perspectives for understanding texts, such as historicism, psychoanalysis, and Marxism. Since New Criticism aims at finding one "correct" reading, it also ignores the ambiguity of language and the active nature of the perception of meaning described by poststructuralists.

My Father and the Fig Tree

Formalists study how literature works, not what literature is about. They see the literary work as an object in its own right. Thus, they tend to devote their attention to it's intrinsic nature, concentrating their analyses on the interplay and relationships between the text’s essential verbal elements. A formalist wants to study the methods and techniques of literary texts.

Works Cited

(Note: This is the Works Cited, its in the same order that Mrs. Ward has it on her website)

Bedford/St. Martin. "VirtuaLit: Critical Approaches." Default. Bedford/St. Martin. Web. 02 Dec. 2011.

<http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_form.html>.

Bedford/St. Martin. "VirtuaLit: Critical Approaches." Default. Bedford/St. Martin. Web. 02 Dec. 2011.

<http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_newcrit.html>.

Spurgin, Tim. "New Criticism." Lawrence University. Lawrence University. Web. 02 Dec. 2011.

<http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/english/courses/60A/newcrit.html>.

Laga, Barry. "New Critics and Formalist." On Form. Mac. Web. 02 Dec. 2011.

<http://myhome.coloradomesa.edu/~blaga/Theory/Form.html>.

"New Criticism/Formalism." Approaches to Reading and Interpretation. Mac. Web. 02 Dec. 2011.

<http://www1.assumption.edu/users/ady/HHGateway/Gateway/Approaches.html>

Siegel, Kristi. "Introduction to Modern Literary Theory." Homepage - Dr. Kristi Siegel. Kristi Siegel.

Web. 02 Dec. 2011. <http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm>.

Formalism

For other fruits, my father was indifferent.

He'd point at the cherry tree and say,

"See those? I wish they were figs."

In the evening he sat by my beds

weaving folktales like vivid little scarves.

They always involved a figtree.

Even when it didn't fit, he'd stick it in.

Once Joha was walking down the road and saw a fig tree.

Or, he tied his camel to a fig tree and went to sleep.

Or, later when they caught and arrested him, his pockets were full of figs.

At age six i ate a dried fig and shrugged.

"That's not what I'm talking about! he said,

"I'm talking about a fig straight form the earth - a gift from Allah! - on a branch so heavy it touches the ground.

I'm talking about picking the largest, fattest,

sweetest fig

in the world and putting it in my mouth."

(Here he'd stop and close his eyes.)

Years passed, we lived in many houses,

none had figtrees.

We had lima beans, zucchini, parley, beets.

"Plant one!" my mother said.

but my father never did.

He tended garden half-heartedly, forot to water,

let the okra get too big.

"What a dreamer he is. Look how many things he starts and doesn't finish."

The last time he moved, I got a phone call,

My father, in Arabic, chanting a song

I'd never heard. "What's that?"

He took me out back to the yard.

There, in the middle of Dallas, Texas,

a tree with the largest, fattest,

sweetest fig in the world.

"It's a fig tree song!" he said,

plucking his fruits like ripe tokens, elmblems, assurance

of a world that was always his own.

Naomi Shihab Nye

Formalism: a general term covering several

similar types of literary criticism, which involves a close reading of the text. This approach of literary criticism can be performed with little to no research. It has nothing to do with the interest of the author or the reader.

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