The art of defamiliarization one of the concepts of formalism is defamiliarization, which victor shklovsky argues makes objects, unfamiliar to make forms difficult to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged 16. The concept was first introduced by victor shklovsky in 1917 in his essay art as technique. Formalism is a philosophical theory of the foundations of mathematics that had aspectacular but brief heyday in the 1920s. Russian formalism the johns hopkins guide to literary. When poetry stagnates and enters the realm of familiarities, defamiliarizing becomes a matter of inevitable revival. A theory crossover introduction 1 analysis of narrative fictions capacity to induce immersion and defamiliarization has a long. Ive tried to apply it in the context of explaining the appeal of japan and in the context of making music. According to formalist literary theorists, the subject accepts familiar matters in automatic sensitivity. Weve been exploring the idea of defamiliarization as a means of making the familiar seem strange and jeff requested examples so heres the first one that popped into my mind tiltshift photography. Traditionally, immersion and defamiliarization have been seen as describing opposing phenomena. Petersburg later leningrad and led by viktor shklovsky. In summary, foregrounding theory predicts that a text which is highly defamiliarized through the use of stylistic elements will be. Arabisms of the persians, the old bulgarian of russian literature, or the elevated, almost literary.
The key point of defamiliarization is to extend the aesthetic. Art being used to defamiliarize us shocks us into thinking about or seeing things. Gullivers travels is the masterpiece of jonathan swift. Art and literature have the ability to make us see the world anew to make that which has become familiar, because we have been overexposed to it, strange again. The art of defamiliarization in gullivers travels masters. Viktor shklovsky calls the silhouette concept algebrization, the process of turning an event or familiar object into an automatic symbol 41. Defamiliarization definition of defamiliarization at. Application of the concept of defamiliarization in. This is the continuation of a series of brief essays in which british writer david lodge examines aspects of the novelists art. He argued that defamiliarization is, more or less, the point of all art. Pdf the technique of defamiliarization in emily dickinsons. At the present day, the novel hasnt lost its significance and can also be regarded as one of the outstanding novels in world literature treasurehouse. The defamiliarization technique is one of conrads major means to practise his narrative and linguistic experimentations in his monumental work and his attempt is both successful and suggestive.
Immersion has been conceived of as transparently directing attention toward what marielaure ryan referred to as the languageindependent reality presented by a fictional text, while uri margolin has conceived of defamiliarization as directing the readers attention to the artificial nature. Article pdf available january 2005 with 2,544 reads how we measure reads. Defamiliarization the art and popular culture encyclopedia. Engl 300 lecture 7 russian formalism open yale courses. It can be related to duchamps idea that art like a good puzzle or game requires delay or to cages use of chance as a way of making the listener pay attention. Doc defamiliarization in literature mohammadreza tozideh. Readers were shocked to discover that the protagonist and principal narrator of kholstomer was an old horse. Russian formalism emerged in the opening decades of the twentieth century as a reaction to the mystification of literature found in the influential paneuropean arts movement of symbolism. Viktor shklovsky referred to it as defamiliarization. Russian formalism and defamiliarization on world literature. Defamiliarization project gutenberg selfpublishing. Defamiliarization theory exerts influences over different art levels like literature, drama, film and so on.
Defamiliarization seems a way to get the brain abducing and hence exploring and discovering. Miall, don kuiken b a department of english, university of alberta, edmonton, alberta, canada, t6g 2e5. Immersion and defamiliarization poetics today duke. Test your knowledge of defamiliarization in literature with an interactive quiz and printable worksheet. Art makes language strange, as well as the world that the language presents. Defamiliarization is a literary technique in which the process of writing is itself focused on more than any particular plotline.
Mar 17, 2016 home literary criticism defamiliarization. Defamiliarization in language and literature 1st edition by robert h. Jun 11, 2014 this is a picture of viktor shklovsky, one of the main voices behind a way of thinking about literature that today is known as russian formalism. The literary work as stranger the disrupting ethics of. Defamiliarization by nasrullah mambrol on march 17, 2016 4. Defamiliarization is a literary device or approach which forces the reader to view something familiar in a.
Defamiliarization and the design of domestic technologies. A satire on communism through defamiliarization krishanu adhikari jrf research scholar department of english, the english and foreign languages university, shillong meghalaya, pin 793022 abstract the term, defamiliarization, coined by one of the earliest practitioners. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a pdf of a single entry from a reference work in or for personal use. Defamiliarization is the usual english translation of ostranenie literally, making strange, another of those invaluable critical terms coined by the russian formalists. A central concept in 20th century art and theory, ranging over movements including dada, postmodernism, epic theatre, and science fiction, it is also used as a tactic by recent movements. Defamiliarization refers to a writers taking an everyday object that we all recognize and, with a wave of his or her authorial magic wand, rendering that same object weirdly unfamiliar to usstrange even. Analysis of narrative fictions capacity to induce immersion and defamiliarization has a long history in the fields of literary and aesthetic theory. Second, defamiliarization obliges the reader to slow down, allowing time for the feelings created by the alliterations and metaphors to emerge. This technique involves exploring the differences between.
Jonathan swift was a famous writer in18th century britain. But 20th century assault was more severe and critical. Opoyaz, an acronym for russian words meaning society for the study of poetic language, founded in 1916 at st. Defamiliarization by nasrullah mambrol on march 17, 2016 4 the russian formalists concept of defamiliarization, proposed by viktor shklovsky in his art as technique, refers to the literary device whereby language is used in such a way that ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different. The process by which literary works unsettle readers habitual ways of seeing the world. Shklovsky then perceived this ability of literature in making strange habitual ways of perceiving the world by the functioning of literary devices as which may.
The narrator of kholstomer, for example, is a horse, and it is the horses point of view rather than a persons that makes the content of the story seem unfamiliar shklovsky 16. Defamiliarization as a cornerstone of postmodernism was finding its way through literature and later in visual arts like cinema, sculpture, theatre, and social media. The distinctive effect achieved by literary works in disrupting our habitual perception of the world, enabling us to see things. A survey of recent empirical studies of literary comprehension shows that little attention has been paid to the effects of literary style, often known as foregrounding. From then on, the studies of the book have been booming. The paper explores the definition of defamiliarization and analyzes the application of defamiliarization in the work of the great gatsby it pinpoints that the high aesthetic beauty of the great gatsby is, to a great extent, attributable to fitzgeralds skillful use of defamiliarization. Pdf the presentation explicates the school of theory and analysis which emerged around 1915 in russia and aimed teo create the science of literature. Defamiliarization is not simply a question of perception. Stacy, defamiliarization in language and literature syracuse. The question of defamiliarization in the poem itself, however, is a different one. Shelley in defence of poetry 1840, and of several modern formalist critics, it is a distinctive feature of literature, especially poetry, that it tears away what shelley called the veil of familiarity. Looking for examples of ostranenie or defamiliarizaion.
And with defamiliarization come both the slowing down and the increased difficulty impeding of the process of reading and comprehending and an awareness of the artistic procedures devices causing them. Given this, we can argue that tools for helping creativity need not be secondclass participants but essential partners to making the new really and radically new. Eikhenbaums dependency on core ideas of marxist and darwinian philosophies of struggle and evolution is explained. Charles baxters defamiliarization this one wild life. The word defamiliarization was coined by the early 20thcentury russian literary critic viktor shklovsky in his essay art as technique. Some considered literature as a constitutionally reactionary entity which served the interests of the. At the same time, it also exerts influences over translation of art language during which many translators inherit defamiliarization. Immersion and defamiliarization edinburgh research explorer. Such a technique is used in emily dickinsons poem after great pain, a formal feeling comes, in both form and meaning. Are there examples of defamiliarization in beowulf. It is the idea that art is supposed to make us freshly aware of the things we see, hear, read or think about everyday but remain familiar to us.
Defamiliarization or, to use the less familiar and hence, perhaps, more beautiful term ostranenie is a very exciting area. Defamiliarization in russian literature to illustrate what he means by defamiliarization, shklovsky uses examples from tolstoy, whom he cites as using the technique throughout his works. To illustrate what he means by defamiliarization, shklovsky uses examples from tolstoy, whom he cites as using the technique throughout his works. Calling attention to its techniques and conventions baring the device, literature exposes its autonomy and artificiality by foregrounding and defamiliarizing its devices. Other articles where defamiliarization is discussed. The art of defamiliarization critical approaches to. Experiencing literature and world by miranda anderson and stefan iversen final draft submitted for the poetics today issue unnatural and cognitive perspectives on literary studies. In his the attack on literature, rene wellek studies and answers different facets of hostilities towards literature. Defamiliarization defamiliarization of that which is or has become familiar automatically perceived is the basic use of literary language. Pdf defamiliarization wikipedia soumya kanti mitra. Formalism, innovative 20thcentury russian school of literary criticism.
Defamiliarization definition, a theory and technique, originating in the early 20th century, in which an artistic or literary work presents familiar objects or situations in an unfamiliar way, prolonging the perceptive process and allowing for a fresh perspective. Defamiliarization or ostranenie is the artistic technique of presenting to audiences common. In russian literature to illustrate what he means by defamiliarization, shklovsky uses examples from tolstoy, whom he cites as using the technique throughout. While roman jakobson described the object of study in literary. Art as technique 1917 viktor shklovsky art is thinking in images. It is a process of transformation where language asserts its power to affect our perception. Jan 07, 2008 defamiliarization is a technique for finding a certain kind of detail that resists the fitting of the object into a silhouette, that is, into a ready made symbolization 42. Confidence, defamiliarization, and a new element in the discourse on a japanese island abstract. One form of creativity uses defamiliarization, a mechanism that frees the brain from its rational shackles and permits the abducing brain to run free. Russian literary language, which was originally foreign to russia, has so permeated the.
Old proverbs in new skins an fmri study on defamiliarization. To explain his thinking behind defamiliarization, shklovsky claimed that the technique of art is to make objects unfamiliar art is a way of experiencing the. Flash fiction, defamiliarization and cultural criticism. The russian formalists concept of defamiliarization, proposed by viktor shklovsky in his art as technique, refers to the literary device whereby language is used in such a way that ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different. He begins by distinguishing russian formalism from hermeneutics. Defamiliarization of that which is or has become familiar or taken for granted, hence automatically perceived, is the basic function of all devices. This is a picture of viktor shklovsky, one of the main voices behind a way of thinking about literature that today is known as russian formalism. The narrator of kholstomer, for example, is a horse, and it is the horses point of view rather than a persons that makes the content of the.
High defamiliarization by means of stylistic variation lowers the predictability of single words in a text and promotes the esthetic perception of poetry and literature miall and kuiken, 1994. The 2003 unesco convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage established a representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Elsevier poetics 22 1994 389407 foregrounding, defamiliarization, and affect. Ten years later, in 1926 the prague school refined the theory of defamiliarization and. Presto changeo, our perspective shifts and we see the object in a new way. It is an idea that art is supposed to frustrate our senses into seeing things as though those things were new. Defamiliarization or ostranenie is the artistic technique of forcing the audience to see common things in an unfamiliar or strange way, in order to enhance perception of the familiar. And with defamiliarization come both the slowing down and the increased difficulty impeding of the process of reading and comprehending and an awareness of the artistic procedures devices.