Defamiliarization

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Defamiliarization or ostranenie (остранение) 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. A basic satirical tactic, it is a central concept of 20th century art, ranging over movements including Dada, postmodernism, epic theatre, and science fiction. A fine example is the cartoon character Pepe le Pew's phrase "My sweet peanut of brittle".

[edit] History

Defamiliarization (as a term, not a technique) was developed in the mid-20th century by Viktor Shklovsky, who is most often associated with Russian Formalism. It was also slightly more publicized by Horace Miner [1956] with his story “Body Rituals Amongst the Nacirema,” where he characterized the rituals of Americans when they go about their morning preparations.

[edit] Usage

The technique appears in English Romantic poetry, particulary in the poetry of Wordsworth, and was defined in the following way by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in his Biographia Literaria: "To carry on the feelings of childhood into the powers of manhood; to combine the child’s sense of wonder and novelty with the appearances which every day for perhaps forty years had rendered familiar [. . .] this is the character and privilege of genius."

In more recent times, it has been associated with the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht, whose Verfremdungseffekt (Alienation Effect) was a potent element of his approach to theater. Brecht, in turn, has been highly influential for artists and filmmakers including Jean Luc Godard and Yvonne Rainer.