Defamiliarisation

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).

Fourth, and finally, while postmodernist works like Lodge’s Changing Places and Small World give the impression of being satires, because of their self-conscious and rather thick use of parody as a means to defamiliarisation, along with their presentation of a humorous world, the satirical attack is actually deflected or blunted by the parody.

The fact that defamiliarisation need not be understood solely in linguistic terms is evident in all kinds of aesthetic experience: for example, a painting or a piece of music can also be understood as ‘defamiliarising’ habitual perceptions.