Examining Zora Neale Hurston's "Spunk" From a Russian Formalist Perspective Sabine Joseph College

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Spunk” is defined by its heavy use of literary devices; therefore, this paper will analyze the text from a Russian formalist perspective. Russian formalism is based on the notion that a text should be analyzed on the basis of its “literariness,” or the devices that it uses to separate the language of literature from the language of laymen. Russian formalism is also very concerned with the idea of “defamiliarization,” or the use of language to make something common seem like a foreign thing ("Russian Formalism" 2017). Using the Russian formalist approach, this paper will evaluate the following aspects of the text: the ways in which the characters speak and how language is used to shape the characters, how symbolism and defamiliarization are used to bring the excerpt to resolution, and how certain repeated words and phrases change meaning throughout the text.

To begin, it is important to establish that there are two types of characters: the actual characters in the story, and the narrator acting with free indirect discourse—a phrase which describes a third-person narrator who has access to the thoughts and feelings of other characters and presents them as if also a character in the story ("Russian Formalism"...