This is the second of five volumes of the textbook on the theory and history of art for graduate and doctoral students. The current volume covers the birth, growth, and tragic death of formalism, one of the most important trends in Russian literary criticism of the 1910s- 1930s. The author explains the general principles of formalism and those individual features and positions within this direction which it owes to the gift of such brilliant Russian philologists, as V. Shklovskii, R. Iakobson, B. Eikhenbaum, G. Vinokur, Iu. Tynianov, and other scholars. Each chapter includes questions for self-checking. Bibliographical references. Name index. Also available on the subject: Bakhtin, M. Freidizm. Formal"nyi Metod v Literaturovedenii. Marksizm i Filosofiia Iazyka. Stat"i (2000); Gornykh, A.A. Formalizm: Ot Struktury k Tekstu i za Ego Predely (2003); Svetlikova, I.Iu. Istoki Russkogo Formalizma (2005); "Mladoformalisty": Russkaia Proza (2007); Evropeiskii Kontekst Russkogo Formalizma (2009); Levchenko, Ia.S. Drugaia Nauka: Russkie Formalisty v Poiskakh Biografii (2012).