Tag Archives: defamiliarization

How to Change The Way You See Things: Conceptualization, Reconceptualization, And Thomas Aquinas

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             . Thomas Aquinas thought that vegetables and animals have souls. According to him, the soul of the vegetable—its matter and essential form—is to take in nutrients, and the soul of the animal is to enjoy access to the senses and to move. But … Continue reading

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A Fresco Painting from Pompeii Paired with Emily Dickinson’s Bedroom Window (and One of Her Poems)

A bedroom fresco? Whose bedroom? Source: Spiegel And here’s Emily Dickinson’s bedroom window: Dickinson’s bedroom was at her family’s Amherst homestead. Emily’s room was on the second story of their home. Here’s one of her poems: I felt a Cleaving in my … Continue reading

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The Female Breast—Defamiliarized

  Early in the 20th century, the Russian formalist, Victor Schklovskii, coined the term “defamiliarization” for designating one of the things that literature does (that is, it makes what is familiar unfamiliar ).  David Mikics, in his excellent reference, A New Handbook of Literary Terms … Continue reading

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Russian Formalist, Victor Shklovsky, on DEFAMILIARIZATION as One of the Essential Roles of Art and Literature (1917)

Victor Shklovsky coined the term “defamiliarization” to describe the role that art and literature can play in turning us around in the world (so that we see things with fresh eyes): Habituation devours works, clothes, furniture, one’s wife, and the … Continue reading

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