Viktor Shlovsky begins this essay by stating that as perception becomes habitual, it becomes unconsciously automatic. This process of "algebrization" or over-automatization of an object enables the reduction of perceptive efforts. Nevertheless, the habitualization devours the sensation of life: "if the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been". Shlovsky presents the idea that "the technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar', to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception." Thus, art eliminates the automatism of perception of objects. Shlovsky uses Tolstoy's writings as an example of defamiliarization of objects by "pricking the conscience". In specific, the author makes reference to Tolstoy's use of a horse as the narrator of "Kholstomer" and how the horse's perspective makes the institution of private property unfamiliar.
The next questions arise from reviewing the essay:
(1) Is habitualization a trait of modernity?
(2) Why is the presentation of the 'unfamiliar' fundamental to the technique of art?
(3) Does the technique of art follows the path of using doubt in order to achieve certainty or the path of acknowledgment of certainty as doubt?
(4) Can the technique of art be used to develop a new culture of learning, in which the device of 'defamiliarization' is employed to remove the automatism in thought?
The essay can be found here:
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