defamiliarisation

plural defamiliarisations · alternative defamiliarization

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

   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, Antony Easthope, Literary Into Cultural Studies

   2 more examples

   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.

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

   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.

   1997, Andrew Bowie, From Romanticism to Critical Theory

   Synonyms: ostranenie