Defamiliarization In Literature: Definition & Examples

Defamiliarization is an artistic technique that elevates the ordinary and the commonplace into the subliminal. The terminology was invented by the Russian formalist  Victor Shklovsky in 1917. But we should not be mistaken: defamiliarization is at the core of all good literature, especially in poetry, and was practiced long before 1917.

It is true that we have great works of literary art whose greatness depends on the remarkable nature of the events being described, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are epic tales of war and adventure. However, some of the best literature focuses on taking the commonplace and allowing us to see how they are special and transcend ordinary existence.

A good example of this idea is William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence” (published in 1863):

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.

This is the first four lines of the poem, and in my opinion, they perfectly sum up the idea of defamiliarization in literature. These lines elevate the commonplace by taking ordinary things from nature and recognizing them as belonging to a greater and more important whole and linking them to a sense of the infinite beyond our ordinary world. 

One could think of it as seeing the world through the eyes of an innocent and perceptive child. The poem goes on to give even more examples of the cosmic significance of the ordinary, using the innocent and naive compassion we expect from the perspective of a child: 

A robin redbreast in a cage

Puts all Heaven in a rage.

. . .

A dog starv'd at his master's gate

Predicts the ruin of the state.

Here, Blake is depicting the unnecessary human cruelty and mistreatment of innocent creatures as being equivalent to an offence committed against God or Heaven itself. This is defamiliarization, as these types of mistreatment are commonplace and ignored in the real world. 

By linking such treatment to crimes against Heaven and dire consequences such as the “ruin of the state,” the poet transforms human compassion for the least of creatures among us into something cosmic and grand. In this article, we take a brief look at what defamiliarization is and explore more examples, including the poem “Visions of Us” by the Saint Lucian poet, Kendel Hippolyte. 

What Is Defamiliarization?

Defamiliarization is the literary technique of presenting ordinary things in a manner that is strange or unexpected to an audience. The terminology was invented by the Russian formalist Victor Shklovsky in his 1917 essay “Art as Device.” 

However, the American writer Anaïs Nin does a good job of explaining how defamiliarization works in literature: 

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.

Let’s demonstrate what is meant by that by looking at an extract from a poem by the Saint Lucian poet Kendel Hippolyte: namely, “Visions of Us" (published in 1997): 

Visions of us

as an old couple

soft in each other’s presence

a living humming with the quality 

of those village stores you hardly see now

bags of sugar with clusters of bees on them

a smell that is the smell of everything

onions and flour, saltfish, rice from Guyana

the light — if I could only just describe the light

and  how protecting it was when I was a child

how magical an onion bulb could look

on the grained gleaming counter

In the poem, the poet is comparing his vision of the future of spending the rest of his life with his wife to “those village stores you hardly see now.” It relies heavily on nostalgia and uses the commonplace and ordinary as a metaphor for eternal love. The poem represents a kind of complete cycle where the poet's vision of undying love in his old age is linked to the nostalgia and innocence of his childhood.

The defamiliarization occurs because a village shop is not something we ordinarily associate with the concept of undying love. The “magic” of the ordinary reach their height when the poet describes the light:

the light — if I could only just describe the light

and how protecting it was when I was a child

how magical an onion bulb could look

on the grained gleaming counter

Just like Blake, Hippolyte seeks to transcend the ordinary by relying on a child’s innocent and naive perspective. Blake makes explicit reference to heaven, whereas Hippolyte resorts to describing a vague and sweet sense of nostalgia that is depicted as otherworldly. We can say that the poet's vision of love and companionship is idealized in the sense of comfort, nostalgia, protection, and contentment that he felt in the village shops of his childhood.

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Defamiliarization and metaphor & symbol 

In the poem by Kendel Hippolyte, we see how he achieves defamiliarization by using the nostalgia and sense of protection evoked by the village shops in his childhood as a metaphor or symbol of protection and happiness. Metaphor, symbolism, and analogy are all effective in achieving defamiliarization.

This makes sense. Metaphors involve comparing unlike things to see the similarity between them, which presents a perfect opportunity to transform the ordinary and commonplace into the sublime. A good example of this is Emily Dickinson’s poem “I like to see it lap the Miles” (published in 1891):

I like to see it lap the Miles —

And lick the Valleys up —

And stop to feed itself at Tanks — 

And then — prodigious step

Around a Pile of Mountains —

And supercilious peer

In Shanties — by the sides of Roads — 

And then a Quarry pare

To fit its sides

And crawl between

Complaining all the while

In horrid — hooting stanza — 

Then chase itself down Hill — 

And neigh like Boanerges —

Then — prompter than a Star

Stop — docile and omnipotent

At its own stable door —

The poem is an extended metaphor, which compares a locomotive train to a horse. A horse and a train, at the time that Dickinson wrote the poem, would have been something that the typical American would ordinarily encounter. 

However, the analogy with a horse has a deeper meaning and emphasizes the theme of the poem. The horse symbolizes man’s earliest instinct at civilizing the wild, so it makes the ideal metaphor for a train. The train is portrayed as the latest phase of man’s industrial attempt to control and civilize nature. 

The power and control over nature that a modern locomotive train represents is summed up in the penultimate line of the poem: “docile and omnipotent.” Dickinson’s defamiliarization in this poem is achieved by using an unusual comparison between a horse and a train to make a point on the nature of and continuation of civilizational progress that a modern train symbolizes. 

It would be useful to compare this poem by Dickinson to Robert Frost's famous "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (published in 1923):

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

The name of the poem alone announces how ordinary the subject is. It says plainly that the poet is stopping by the woods on a snowy evening. It has a similar theme to Dickinson's poem. It explores the nature of the relationship between humankind and nature. However, Dickinson's poem can be described as optimistic, where wild nature is portrayed as something fully controlled and tamed by human nature. The locomotive train is used to describe modern industrialization as the latest march toward human progress, just as the horse that the train is compared to was man's first step toward conquering nature.

The Frost poem is much more pessimistic, although understated and relying heavily on subtext. Frost is portraying nature as something fully capable of reducing human ambition and commitments, which is described as "promises to keep," into sweet and beautiful oblivion. The poem can be interpreted as the poet having a perverse attraction to the idea of stepping into the woods and allowing himself to be buried alive under the snow, and giving up his life.

With Robert Frost, the analogy is not nearly as complete and elaborate as that of Dickinson. However, the motif of the horse has to be mentioned. Dickinson uses the horse as a symbol of civilization, which is similar to how Frost uses it. The horse in the Frost poem is a motif for human commitments and relationships. The animal is portrayed as almost nudging and tugging the poet away from his death wish to be obliviated by nature: "He gives his harness bells a shake / To ask if there is some mistake."

The death wish in question is indicated by the simple description of the woods being "lovely, dark and deep," a simple and subtle yet effective representation of the dark and mysterious allure of nature. In short, Frost achieves his defamiliarization by taking an ordinary snowy evening in the woods and turning it into a kind of existential contemplation as to whether or not it makes sense to continue with the weary commitments of life or simply give in to the dark temptation of allowing ourselves to be reduced into sweet oblivion by nature.

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, November 23). Defamiliarization In Literature: Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/defamiliarization-in-literature