Analysing literary texts from a formalist approach: some reflections on Tayeb Salih’s : "a handful of dates”

الملخص EN

To analyse fiction requires more than the content knowledge of a text.

In the last century, and for more than seven decades, there were many attempts to approach literature from a scientific perspective by a growing number of critics.

Their goal was to examine aesthetic and moral aspects of any literary product, relying on its form (how it is said or written) rather than its content (what is said or written), a practice that could have met the norms of modernity and that would have led to more objectivity in literary studies.

This present study is primarily devoted to literature in the era of formalism, the features and principles of the latter, as well as a practical activity for the students to consider concrete exemplification.

Additionally, by reviewing some related literature and, at the same time, relying on our observations, this study also aims to investigate the study of literary texts from a historical perspective.