Russian formalism and scientific abstraction: the assumptions of the eternity of literature and the ‘exposed Totality’Abstract
In the present work the object of study and the methodology of Russian formalism will be analyzed from an Althusserian perspective. In the first instance we will try to address the problem of "scientific abstraction", as well as the successive approaches by the formal school to the definition, relatively stable throughout its years of activity, of the object and the method of study. In second instance we will try to address two fundamental principles of Russian formalism (the effective existence of literary texts, and the presupposition of a literariness), not only taking into account their epistemological implications, but also the impact that these two principles had in the literary theory of the early twentieth century.
Key Words: Object; method; Russian formalism; literary theory; epistemology; althusser.