Stepping out of your comfort zone isn't an easy thing to do. In fact, it can often be terrifying, which explains why not many of us can boast about jumping out of a plane, backpacking Europe, or surfing the Australian coral reefs. But, if you know someone who has done some of these things, then let them boast! Allow them to tell you their stories of courage, confidence, and craziness, because they took a step towards the unknown that many will never dare to do. Ultimately, it is they who have been through the terror to see where real learning of the self takes place - and that is forever rewarding.

If you're still a little unsure about going on a big adventure, than why not start with something easy: reading a new piece of literature with an open mind. Believe it or not, this isn't an easy task, either. Personally, I find opening a new book daunting; I compare it to the last book I read, to my favorite book, or I make pre-conceived notions based on the cover. But these are completely irrational judgments! The truth is, you never know what lies behind the cover of a book or on the next page. So instead of jumping to conclusions or out of a plane, why not sit back and allow some defamiliarization to carry you into your next read.

Defamiliariaztion is a literary concept defined by Russian theorist Viktor Shklovsky as the process of making things “unfamiliar” (18). The process of defamiliarization, put simply, is used to "make forms difficult" and to "increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged” (18). 

Critics Henderson and Brown, who have their own extensive considerations on Shklovsky's concept, use his definition to consider how art (thus, poetry) has the ability to "counter the deadening effect of habit and convention by investing the familiar with strangeness and thereby deautomatizing perception" (Henderson and Brown). Essentially, each of these men explore how taking a familiar text (or what we assume will be familiar) and purposefully making it unfamiliar will change how we view it. When we get rid of our automatic perceptions to let in the new, otherwise ignored meanings, we as readers will learn.

The concept of defamiliarization remains a little unsettling until you actually apply it to literature. One of my favorite defamiliarization poems is Tonja Gunvaldsen-Klaassen's poem "Gravity." There are various other authors who consider defamiliarization in their poetry, such as Sylvia Hamilton's "Excavation," Shoshanna Wingate's "AIDS Ward," RM Vaughan's 96 tears (in my jeans), or Sue Goyette's "A New Form." But Klaassen's poem is unique in that it immediately defamiliarizes readers as they transition from the title to text, as they will find a completely different poetic meaning than the title may have suggested. "Gravity" also serves as a practical explanation of defamiliarization, for as the reader is carried through the unknown towards a better understanding on life, the narrator experiences the process for herself by learning to cope with her agoraphobia. Truthfully, Klaassen's ability to defamiliarize is eponymous. For that reason, I urge you to hold tight, consider what you now know about defamiliarization, and anticipate a good read from Klaassen's soon-to-be published critical analysis (which will be found here)!  

In its entirety, defamiliarization takes readers on a journey of perception in order to make them see what they had previously overlooked. It carries its adventurers through the unknown towards a brighter understanding on life, literature, and themselves. 

So, what are you waiting for? 

I would like to consider this blog entry as a call to action for all readers; therefore, don't simply read this entry and think of the possibilities defamiliarzation might bring to your next read, but choose to experience it! Grab a book, short story, poem, or essay and read it with a new perspective. Or, pick a poem from our site which is purposefully made to make you think and reconsider what you know. (For a list of possibilities, check out the last blog post ("The Diverse Adventure") and browse the categories provided). If you are feeling inspired after a great read, then read another! Or take your new found courage and jump out of a plane! (I did it once - terrifying, but completely worth it!). 

Be defamiliarized today! You won't regret it.


Cheers,

Monica

Works Cited:

Henderson, Greig E., and Christopher Brown. “defamiliarization.” Glossary of Literary Theory.  Eds. Henderson, Greig E., & Christopher Brown. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1997. n.p. Print.

Shklovsky, Viktor. “Art as Technique.” Literary theory, an anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin & Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell, 1998. 17-23. Print.

*For more information on defamiliarization's many categories and applications, check out the document below:

In all honesty, the previous school year was my biggest introduction to poetry thus far in my academic career. Sure, I had read some Shakespearean sonnets and struggled through Edmund Spenser's language, I had been introduced to the figure heads that are Wordsworth and Blake, and I even attempted a little Chaucer once. But Atlantic Canadian Poetry? I didn't even know the genre was in enough demand to be deemed a 'genre'. But, after taking Dr. McConnell's Contemporary Atlantic Canadian Poetry Seminar and having the privilege of working on the ACPA, I have come to realize not only my love for Canadian poetry, but also the astounding diversity of work we in Atlantic Canada get to brag about.

The project and purpose of the ACPA is to bring to light the amazing work written by poets in our own backyard. Furthermore, we as editors - and you as past and future contributors - wish to provide some scholarship on poets who are more than deserving of recognition. While continuing this goal, I have been lucky enough to read multiple entries on poets whom I had never heard of before. These entries, which include biographies, poems, critical analyses, and bibliographies of a poet by the author's choice, have piqued my interest in the work that has been published around me for years. Through these collections, I have discovered activism, nature, old literature, tragedy, and self-discovery; I have been defamiliarized and called to action, asked to reflect and reconsider, have encountered the real and the surreal, and have been opened to a genre of poetry who's sundry form, technique, and theme match that of the early sonnets and romantic names we are too often pointed towards.

To make sure the diversity mentioned above is noticed, I've compiled some categories to help you navigate the deep waters found in Atlantic Canadian Poetry. These categories include unique form, technique, and themes found on the archive to give you just an idea of what is to come if you choose to explore. So dive in to the different pools of work, and let them take you to new and exciting places.


Cheers, 

Monica

Activism
El Jones - "Kings and Queens"
Sylvia Hamilton - "The Passage"
Sheree Fitch - "The Garbage Man"

Nature
Judy Gaudet - "Neap Tides"
Michael Crummey - "Capelin Skull"
Charles G. D. Roberts - "In an Old Barn"

Tragedy
M. Travis Lane - "Elegy"
Susan Paddon - "The Minister's Visit"
Shari Andrews - "No Trace Remains"

Narration
Lesley Choyce - "My Bicycle goes to Nova Scotia to Die"
Brian Bartlett - "West End, Halifax"
Eleonore Schonmaier - "Life Spinning Thinner"

Defamiliarization
R.M. Vaughan - 96 tears (in my jeans)
Tonja Gunvaldsen-Klaassen - "Gravity"
Sue Goyette - "A New Form"

Realism vs. Surrealism
Don McKay - "Setting the Table"
Kay Smith - "Holland"
Neil Murray - "Biblical Incident"