u/ihavenoidea12300

I asked this question in another subreddit but all I have gotten are recommendations of texts rather than an actual explanation of the concept. Anyway, my question was concerned with formalism, and if every piece of narrative, by definition, was fundamentally formalistic in essence, how come other schools that oppose it act as a legitimate counterweight? If fiction has always been judged by its own form and structure, wouldn’t a piece of fiction cease to be branded as literature if it moved beyond the constraints of the form?

The mods have deleted my post because it was apparently structured in a way that looked to be asking for ‘homework help’, which is ironic since I’m a math student lol. Anyway, my question was out of sheer curiosity, as I was looking for suggestions of some primary texts on formalism, and how certain schools that oppose it act as a counterweight when all literature is fundamentally formalistic in essence? Do they criticize the form itself or the mode of analysis taken by formalists?