
Russian Formalism introduced 'defamiliarization' (ostranenie)
Image: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Russian Formalism introduced 'defamiliarization' (ostranenie)
'Defamiliarization' was not the only concept within Russian Formalism, but it was a significant one that influenced modern literary criticism. The movement's ideas contributed to the development of structuralism and post-structuralism, impacting thinkers like Mikhail Bakhtin and Juri Lotman.
Understanding 'defamiliarization' helps grasp how Russian Formalism aimed to change the reader's perception of the ordinary through art.
Dead Souls
Dead Souls satirizes 19th-century Russian bureaucracy
Abstract expressionism
Kandinsky's abstract art aimed to visually represent music
Pollock's drip paintings achieve
Pollock's drip paintings transform painting into an act of gesture, prioritizing process over representation
Metamorphoses
Ovid's Metamorphoses chronicles over 250 myths of transformation
Bauhaus (typeface)
Bauhaus unified art, craft, and technology under the principle that form follows function
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky's exploration of the 'Russian soul' through suffering and spiritual redemption
One email a day: 5 concepts + the 5 stories that matter →
Swipe through 100 ML concepts daily
Open TickerNews