Art as Technique

1. Defamiliarization is stripping objects or subjects from their individual or “familiar” characteristics and giving them unusual or “unfamiliar” traits to allow the reader to see it in a whole new perspective. An example of this is in Tolstoy's defamiliarization of spanking, explaining the act as “to strip people who have broken the law, to hurl them to the floor, and to rap on their bottoms with switches.” The crude description removes the disciplinary context it had and creates a vicious and “savage” form of abuse. This continues with Tolstoy saying “Just why precisely this stupid, savage means of causing pain and not any other – why not prick the shoulders or any part of the body with needles, squeeze the hands or the feet in a vice, or anything like that?” The initial reaction to the latter quote is condemning its barbaric nature. However upon thinking that, it exposes several contradictions and hypocritical opinions as the only thing that changed in both scenarios was the form of punishment, not the infliction of pain on the child itself. Like Shklovsky said “the object isn’t important,” it is the connotations it conveys.

2. The concept is quite prevalent in feminist literature, specifically in the feminist critique in which most, if not all, the female characters are produced by men and male-oriented literature. However, gynocriticism isn’t immune to this technique as it could easily be exploited to further “radical feminism”. In the feminist critique, women are painted with the brush of stereotypes, omissions and sexist language; focusing on the negative attributes of women in all facets of society. Sexist language generally takes away the human quality of women, allowing misogyny to be justified. Stereotypes and omissions remove any obligation to see women as anything but human. In the case of gynocriticism where women create