defamiliarisation

English

Alternative forms

• defamiliarization

Etymology

de- +‎ familiar +‎ -isation; possibly a calque of Russian остранение (ostranenije) as used by Russian critic Viktor Shklovsky.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /diːfəˌmɪljəɹaɪˈzeɪʃən/

Noun

defamiliarisation (countable and uncountable, plural defamiliarisations)

1. (art) The representation of objects anew, in a way that we do not recognize, or that changes our reading of them.

   Synonym: ostranenie

   Coordinate term: Verfremdungseffekt

   • 1991, Antony Easthope, Literary Into Cultural Studies:

     It therefore works via a process of ‘defamiliarisation’ (ostranenie) (Shklovsky instances defamiliarisation as an effect to be found in riddles with their play on words, and in euphemistic references to erotic subjects).

   • 1991, Brian A. Connery, “Inside Jokes: Familiarity and Contempt in Academic Satire”, in David Bevan, editor, University Fiction:

     Fourth, and finally, while postmodernist works like Lodge’s Changing Places and Small World give the impression of being satires, because of their self-conscious and rather thick use of parody as a means to defamiliarisation, along with their presentation of a humorous world, the satirical attack is actually deflected or blunted by the parody.

   • 1997, Andrew Bowie, From Romanticism to Critical Theory:

     The fact that defamiliarisation need not be understood solely in linguistic terms is evident in all kinds of aesthetic experience: for example, a painting or a piece of music can also be understood as ‘defamiliarising’ habitual perceptions.

Further reading

• defamiliarization on Wikipedia.Wikipedia