Shklovsky developed the concept of ostranenie or defamiliarization in literature. He explained this idea as follows:
- The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar’, to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important." (Shklovsky, "Art as Technique", 12)
In other words, art presents things in a new, unfamiliar light by way of formal manipulation. This is what is artful about art.
