Also know as Estrangement
In Russian: остранение
It’s an artistic technique that involves presenting common things in an unfamiliar way to help audiences see the world differently and gain new perspectives. The goal is to enhance perception of the familiar.
The goal is to make the familiar appear new and strange, thus forcing the audience to see it more vividly and from a fresh perspective.
This concept was introduced by the Russian Formalist Viktor Shklovsky in his 1917 essay “Art as Technique” (also known as “Art as Device”).
Make it Strange
“to make strange”—for this effect, arguing, “Art removes objects from the automatism of perception … The technique of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar.’” As art estranges us from the convention, Shklovsky suggested, it reacquaints us with the vividness and originality of life, thus letting us get hold of something fresh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamiliarization
Two ways to make things unfamiliar:
- By increasing the difficulty.
- By increasing the length of perception.
Literary language is ordinary language deformed and made strong.
Examples:
- Tolstoy makes the familiar seem strange
by not namingthe familiar objects. He describes an objectas if he were seeing it for the first time, an event as if it were happening for the first time. Heavoids the accepted nameswhile describes something.
Limits:
It is to transfer the usual perception of an object into the sphere of new perception. But not to make the viewer understand the object completely. This is called Parallelism.