This is an in-person workshop that takes place at Inprint House.

Recast the Commonplace: Defamiliarization as Technique

“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.” -Anais Nin

Viktor Shklovsky coined the term “defamiliarization” in 1917, stating that it was the object of art to make objects unfamiliar. We are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century, and the need for seeing the world anew, with fresh eyes, has only increased. As writers, we can help readers shed preconceptions and see anew; re-present the world in all its magic, weirdness, and hilarity. The impact of defamiliarization in writing is to cause readers to question and enhance their perception of reality, and in the process, redefine it for themselves.

In this two-day workshop, open to both poets and fiction writers, we will look to artists and writers such as Leonora Carrington, Raymond Queneau, Katarina Kamprani, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Harryette Mullen, Ernesto Marenco, Paul Celan, William Faulkner, and more in order to practice the art of defamiliarization in our writing. Using a treasure chest of objects (no, seriously, a literal treasure chest), our dreams, and unique experiences, we will generate, re-write, and revise scenes and vignettes until we re-see the commonplace in all its strange implications and possibilities.