Reading for the Voice, Not the Story: Applying Skaz from Russian Formalism in Teaching English Literature at the Graduate and Undergraduate Levels

This article contends that literature teachers should pay less attention to what happens in a story and more to who is telling it and how they tell it. We utilize the Russian Formalist concept of skaz, a narrative technique that mimics oral, spoken speech. Skaz gives the narrator a distinctive, often eccentric voice that forms the shape of all the reader understands. We teach students to read more critically by teaching them to look at the narrator's word choices and grammar and rhythm. The approach is usef ul for graduate seminars and undergraduate introductory courses. We offer practical classroom strategies for analyzing narrators in English language fiction, showing that voice is not mere decoration, it is the engine of meaning. Ultimately, reading for th engine of meaning. Ultimately, reading for the voice rather than the plot helps students to see e voice rather than the plot helps students to see literature as a carefully built craft, rather than just a story to be consumed.literature as a carefully built craft, rather than just a story to be consumed.