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Formalist

   Also found in: Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
for·mal·ism  (fôrm-lzm)
n.
1. Rigorous or excessive adherence to recognized forms, as in religion or art.
2. An instance of rigorous or excessive adherence to recognized forms.
3. A method of aesthetic analysis that emphasizes structural elements and artistic techniques rather than content, especially in literary works.
formal·ist adj. & n.
formal·istic adj.
formal·isti·cal·ly adv.


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The cramping influence of a hard formalist on a young child, in repressing his spirits and courage, paralyzing the understanding, and that without producing indignation, but only fear and obedience, and even much sympathy with the tyranny,--is a familiar fact, explained to the child when he becomes a man, only by seeing that the oppressor of his youth is himself a child tyrannized over by those names and words and forms of whose influence he was merely the organ to the youth.
Essays, First Series by Emerson, Ralph Waldo View in context
It is a ridiculous thing, and fit for a satire to persons of judgment, to see what shifts these formalists have, and what prospectives to make superficies to seem body, that hath depth and bulk.
The Essays by Bacon, Sir Francis View in context
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