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problem of "literariness" and place it in the proper perspective.
In 1933 Jakobson stated the new methodological orientation
succinctly, when he postulated the "autonomy of the aesthetic func–
tion rather than separatism of art."
Autonomy but not separatism-this was the crux of the matter.
This meant that
art
was a distinct mode of human endeavor, not
wholly explainable in terms of other spheres of experience, and yet
closely related to them. It implied the notion of "literariness" neither
as the only pertinent aspect of literature, nor merely one of its com–
ponents, but as the principle of dynamic integration, as the structural
property informing and permeating the entire work, in a word, to use
the key term of modem psychology, as
Gestaltqualitat.
Consequently,
the "ethos" appeared not as a camouflage for the "real thing" but as
a bona fide element of the aesthetic structure and, as such, a legiti–
mate object of literary study, provided that it be examined within the
context of the literary work. And finally, the work itself was defined
not .as a cluster of devices but as a multi-dimensional structure, inte–
grated by the unity of the aesthetic purpose.
The Czech Structuralist movement was a short-lived affair. The
critical doctrine emphasizing complexity of literature could scarcely
thrive in the intellectual climate of "new" Czechoslovakia. Conse–
quently, the concepts evolved by the Structuralist theoreticians could
not be fully utilized during the brief span of time which history
allotted to them. But, perhaps, it is not too much to say that here
was an auspicious beginning of what may yet become a significant
new departure in aesthetics.
Extrinsic criticism which, as Shklovski aptly put it, brushes aside
the form in order to see better the "content," is too preoccupied
with
the "relevance" of literature to pay any attention to its uniqueness.
Pure Formalism tended toward the other extreme. Structuralism,
the end product of Formalist theorizing, seems to point the way
toward a conception of literature which would do full justice to
both the uniqueness and the relevance of literary art.
