defamiliarisation
/diːfəˌmɪljəɹaɪˈzeɪʃən/
defamiliarisation means the representation of objects anew, in a way that we do not recognize, or that changes our reading of them. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
defamiliarisation is pronounced /diːfəˌmɪljəɹaɪˈzeɪʃən/.
Why “defamiliarisation” is a great word
Defamiliarisation is the deliberate artistic technique of making the commonplace seem strange in order to refresh and heighten perception of the familiar. From the English prefix de- ("removal or reversal") + familiar ("well-known") + the suffix -isation ("process of making"), it is a calque of the Russian остранение (ostranenije, "making strange") as used by the Russian formalist critic Viktor Shklovsky in the early 20th century. Unlike alienation, which implies emotional or social detachment, or estrangement, which connotes a hostile distance, defamiliarisation is a conscious aesthetic strategy meant to provoke insight, not isolation. It is the sudden glimpse of a kitchen sink as an alien porcelain landscape, the description of a horse’s gait as the complex folding of a carpenter’s rule, or the rendering of a worn routine into a sequence of odd, meticulous gestures—all to make the world visible again by briefly withholding the comfort of the known, reminding us that to see anew is the fundamental, difficult work of being alive.
Etymology
From de- + familiar + -isation; possibly a calque of Russian остранение (ostranenije) as used by Russian critic Viktor Shklovsky.
noun
- The 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).”