Reflecting varieties of theory and practice in both verse and prose from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, these essays by many of America's leading literary scholars call for a reinvigorated formalism that can enrich literary studies, open productive routes of commerce with cultural studies, and propel cultural theory out of its thematic ruts.This book reprints Modern Language Quarterly's highly acclaimed special issue Reading for Form, along with new essays by Marjorie Perloff, D. Vance Smith, and Susan Stewart, and a revised introduction by Susan Wolfson. With historical case studies and insightful explorations, Reading for Form offers invaluable material for literary critics in all specializations.

Introduction: Reading for Form / Susan J. WolfsonForm and Contentment / Ellen RooneyHating and Loving Aesthetic Formalism: Some Reasons / Virgil NemoianuMedieval Forma: The Logic of the Work / D. Vance SmithGuess Who's Coming to Dinner? Reinterpreting Formalism and the Country House Poem / Heather Dubrow"Among Unequals What Society": Paradise Lost and the Forms of Intimacy / Ronald LevaoFormalism and History: Binarism and the Anglophone Couplet / J. Paul HunterThe Signature and the Initial in Zukofsky's "A" / Susan Stewart"Sound Scraps, Vision Scraps": Paul Celan's Poetic Practice / Marjorie PerloffEverybody Hates Kant: Blakean Formalism and the Symmetries of Laura Moriarty / Robert KaufmanJane Austen, Emma, and the Impact of Form / Frances FergusonThe Foreign Offices of British Fiction / Garrett StewartThe Slaughterhouse of Literature / Franco MorettiFormalism and Time / Catherine GallagherContributorsIndex