Includes bibliography and notes.

Part 1: Formalism Revisited

1. Criticism and literature

2. Formalism and Marxism

3. Russian Formalism: clearing the ground

4. Formalism and beyond

Part 2: Marxist criticism: from aesthetics to politics

5. Marxist versus aesthetics to politics

6. Science, literature and ideology

7. The legacy of aesthetics

8. Work in progress

9. Conclusion

Russian Formalism and Marxist criticism had a seismic impact on twentieth-century literary theory and the shockwaves are still felt today. The author first introduces and reviews the work of the Russian Formalists, a group of theorists who made an extraordinarily vital contribution to literary criticism in the decade following the October Revolution of 1917. Placing the work of key figures in context and addressing such issues as aesthetics, linguistics and the category of literature, literary form and function and literary evolution, Bennett argues that the Formalists' concerns provided the basis for a radically historical approach to the study of literature. Bennett then turns to the situation of Marxist criticism ad sketches the risks it has run in becoming overly entangled with the concerns of traditional aesthetics. He forcefully argues that through a serious and sympathetic reassessment of the Formalists and their historical approach, Marxist critics might find their way back on to the terrain of politics, where they and their work belong. -- From product description