Defamiliarization Theory A New Agent

“Defamiliarization” is the core concept of Russian Formalism and principle of FormalismMethod. In1916, Victor Shklovsky advocated the theory of “Defamiliarization” and tried to useit as a method of summarizing complicated feelings and expressing phenomena. From the pointof view of Formalist, the art means to become “Defamiliarization”, that is to say, art makesitself more difficult to be understood so that the time used for tasting is prolonged. Meanwhile,Defamiliarization Theory, first advanced in last century, is practiced in art creation at all timesand in all lands, not absolutely owned by a certain times or a certain nationality. As a generalprinciple, it has solid and comprehensive psychological base,“Defamiliarization Theory” isfully used at every level of art works and embodied in every direction and aspect. As VictorShklovsky said,“where there is image, there is ‘Defamiliarization’.”Today, some people regard "make it new" as a world-wide outstanding feature ofmodernist school, while taking “make it strange” as a striking characteristic of“Post-Modernism”. Actually, these are all taken as basic features and belong to the fields of“Defamiliarization”. The “Defamiliarization theory” has been a source of many westerntheories of literature and art. Such as “Constructionism”,“Deconstructionism”,“SymbolismPhenomena”,“Acceptance Aesthetics” and “Acceptance Theory”. All take it as their theoreticalbasis.This article is divided into three parts to introduce the Defamiliarization. The first part,make a brief description of Russian formalism, including the formation and establishment,development and change, the main points, follow-up impact, for the support of the cultural andtheoretical background to understand the concept of Defamiliarization. After this introduction,introduce a few of the aesthetic category which is closely related to Defamiliarization：materials and procedures, Defamiliarization and literariness, poetic language and ordinarylanguage, Defamiliarization and automation. After combing through these, we could understandfurther of the Defamiliarization theory.In the second part, the psychology reasons of formingdefamiliarization were discoursed, including the Unconscious theory, the Anti-psychologicaldecay theory and the Wake-up theory. The third part put the Defamiliarization deep into the areaof anthrop study, and it was combined with the theory of Victor Shklovsky, Brecht, Marcuse totalk about Defamiliarization and the problem of alienation.