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Things Made Strange: On the Concept of "Estrangement" in Science Fiction Theory

Author(s): Simon Spiegel
Source: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Nov., 2008), pp. 369-385
Published by: SF-TH Inc
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THINGS MADE STRANGE
369
Simon
Spiegel
Things
Made
Strange:
On the
Concept
of
"Estrangement"
in
Science Fiction
Theory
The
concept
of
estrangement
has been
significant
for sf criticism ever since Darko
Suvin defined sf as the
"genre
of
cognitive estrangement"
in his
Metamorphoses
of
Science Fiction
(1979).1 Although
everyone
seems to
agree
that sf renders the
content of its stories somehow
"strange,"
there are
upon
closer
inspection
considerable differences in the
way
sf scholars make use of Suvin's
concept.
This
is
partly
due to inconsistencies within Suvin's own
definition,
which are
themselves a
consequence
of the
vagueness
of the
concept
of
"estrangement"
before it was introduced into sf criticism. The idea of
estrangement occupies
a
prominent position
in several aesthetic theories of the twentieth
century.
It
was,
for
example,
central for Russian
Formalism,
as well as for Surrealism and for
various
postmodern
writers. The
concept
has been
continually
extended,
so
that
today estrangement
is often
regarded simply
as a
general
artistic
principle.
In this
paper,
I intend to restrict the
meaning
of
estrangement,
as far
as sf is
concerned,
by referring
back to two of its
significant
theoreticians,
Shklovsky
and
Brecht,
before
re-evaluating
Suvin's definition. Since I am a scholar of film
studies,
I will
focus
my analysis
on sf
movies; nonetheless,
my insights
should hold
equally
for
written sf.
Shklovsky
and Brecht?Ostranenie and
V-EffekL
In
German,
my
native
language, "estrangement"
is
commonly
translated as
Verfremdung. Verfremdung
in turn can be translated into
English
in several
ways,
the three most
popular
being "estrangement,""defamiliarization,"
and "alienation." Each of these variant
translations has had
consequences,
as we
shall
see,
since
Suvin,
who
speaks
German
fluently,
draws
heavily
from such German authors as
Bertolt Brecht and
Ernst Bloch.2 In
German-speaking
discourse,
the term
Verfremdung
is used
by
two different theoretical traditions: for the
concept
of ostranenie as
developed by
the Russian Formalist Viktor
Shklovsky,
and for Brecht's
concept
of the
estranging
effect,
the so-called
V-Effekt. Although
these theoretical
approaches
share
similarities,
they
are
by
no means identical.
Shklovsky
in his 1917
essay
Art
as
Technique
defines ostranenie as the
breaking up
of established habits of
reception.
In
daily
life,
we often
perceive things only superficially?i.e.,
we do
not
really
see them the
way they
are. To
truly
see
things again
we must overcome
our
"blind"
perception,
and this is
only possible
when
they
are made
strange
again.
This
process
of
making things
to
appear strange
is,
according
to
Shklovsky,
the essential task of
any
kind of art.3
It is difficult to
pin
down the term
ostranenie, however,
because
Shklovsky's
definition is not
very systematic.
In
fact,
he describes several
processes
at
different levels.
Firstly,
he uses ostranenie to differentiate art from non-art. From
this
perspective,
ostranenie seems to be
part
of the
perception process.
Yet at the
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370
SCIENCE FICTION
STUDIES,
VOLUME 35
(2008)
same time ostranenie is used to describe
specific
formal
operations,
such as
stylistic
devices located at the level of the
text,
as for
example
the
presence
of
unusual narrative
strategies.
At a third
level,
ostranenie describes a
process
in the
history
of art. In the course of
time,
a
style
once
thought
to be
revolutionary
will
become "normal" and
thereby
will be canonized.
Subsequently things
in turn are
made
strange again,
but
only by
a
process
of conscious
departure
from established
norms.
According
to
Shklovsky,
the
history
of art is a
steady
succession of
canonization and de-automatization.
At first
glance,
Brecht's definition of
Verfremdung
seems almost identical to
Shklovsky's
ostranenie: "A
representation
which
estranges
is one which allows
us to
recognize
its
subject,
but at the
same time makes it seem
unfamiliar"
(qtd
in
Metamorphoses
(6).
Yet for
Brecht,
Verfremdung
also has
a
strong
didactic and
political meaning,
and
clearly
is
part
of the audience's
perception.
The
V-Effekt
blocks
empathy.
In Brecht's
Epic
Theater the
spectator
is not allowed to "delve"
into the
play
and is obstructed from
regarding
it as "natural."
Quite
the
contrary,
the action on
stage?and by analogy
the social order? should be rendered visible
as
something
artificial and man-made. In the
logic
of dialectical
materialism,
V
Effekt
should make an audience aware of
sociopolitical processes (Jameson 58).
In contrast to
Shklovsky,
Brecht's
Verfremdung
is not so much a
general principle
of art as a
specific
didactic effect
(Brooker 90).
For
Brecht,
there are
analogies
between
estrangement
and the scientific
process;
both are based
on a
naive, fresh
look at the
world,
both take
nothing
for
granted,
and both ask
why
the current
situation is the
way
it is
(Rulicke-Weiler 303).
Brecht's
plea
for a "theater of the
scientific
age"
has to be understood in this context.
When it comes to the
question
of what kind of
response estrangement
does
or
should
provoke
in the
reader,
Shklovsky
and Brecht differ
fundamentally.4
For
Brecht,
it is essential that
estrangement
leads to the realization that
things
do not
have to be the
way they
are,
that
any
current state of
things
is not a natural
given
but a
product
of historical
processes,
which can
change
and will be
changed.
Shklovsky4s project, by
contrast,
is
ultimately
a conservative
one. For
him,
the
task of art is not to reveal
things
as results of a historical
process
but as eternal:
Things
are as
they
are,
and art seems to be called
upon
to reveal
through
estrangement
their
genuine
character?not to
change
them or the social
settings
in which
they
occur.
Any
successful act of
estrangement
thus rests on a
paradox:
The end
product
is meant as a
piece
of innovation?arrived at
through
various
artistic devices?that serves, however,
to revive and make more
palpable
the old
(and constant)
substance of
things.
To conduct the
procedure
of
estrangement
properly
and to the desired end means to
bring
the old to the fore in and
through
the new,
thus
reasserting
what is
presumed
to be the
object's
timeless substance.
(Tihanov 686)
Despite
their different
goals,
both
Shklovsky
and Brecht see and use
estrangement
mainly
as a
stylistic
device that describes how fiction is
being
communicated.
Shklovsky specifically
mentions unusual verbal
imagery,
while Brecht names
concrete
operations,
such
as a distanced kind of
acting
or
placing
banners above
the
stage?two exemplary strategies
for
breaking
the illusion of realism.
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THINGS MADE STRANGE
371
Suvin refers
explicitly
to
Shklovsky
and
Brecht,
but without
distinguishing
properly
between these two theoretical traditions.
Instead,
he introduces the term
estrangement
in a
completely
new realm when
using
it to
designate
a
genre:
"In
sf the attitude of
estrangement
...
has
grown
into the
formal framework
of the
genre" {Metamorphoses
7;
emphasis
in
original).5
This central
point
of Suvin's
poetics
is full of
contradictions,
and it is worth
analyzing
it in detail to
disentangle
the different
aspects
of Suvin's
concept.
For
all their
differing
attitudes
regarding
the
question
of what task
estrangement
should serve, for both
Shklovsky
and Brecht
estrangement
has been
primarily
a
stylistic
device that can be located at
specific points
inside "realistic" texts.
Suvin, however,
suddenly
calls it the formal framework of
estranged genres,
which are
comprised
of
sf,
the
fairy
tale,
and
myth,
and which he
opposes
to
naturalistic ones.
This is not
only
a
completely
new
usage
of the term
"estrangement,"
but a
problematic
one. One of the
elementary insights
of Russian Formalism has been
that so-called "realistic" texts also
regularly
make use of
estranging
effects
(Parrinder 37).
From a
formalist's
point
of
view,
Suvin's
opposition
between
estranged
and naturalistic fiction is
quite questionable,
to
say
the least.
The
opposition
between Suvin's
theory
and the formalist's ostranenie arises
because in his
concept
of
estrangement
Suvin
intermingles
different
aspects.
He
fuses the
ontology
of the fictional world with the formal devices a text
employs
to
present
its world. For
Suvin,
estrangement
has to be
applied
to both fictional
and formal
aspects. Although
he writes of the "formal framework" of a
genre
and,
moreover,
quotes
Brecht's definition of
Verfremdung, estrangement clearly
is not
a
purely
formal device for Suvin. If he were
truly following
Brecht
("A
representation
which
estranges
is one
which allows us to
recognize
its
subject,
but
at the same time makes it seem
unfamiliar"
[32]),
this would mean that sf and
fantasy
are
constantly making
their marvelous elements
appear
strange.6
This
is,
of course,
not true.
Although
"unrealistic" characters
populate fairy
tales,
they
are
not
"strange"
in the sense of
Shklovsky
or Brecht.
They
are not constructed to
surprise?on
the
contrary,
witches and fairies and the like are
expected?and
hence
they
do not serve to de-automatize
or to make
strange
whatever is
happening
in the
story.
Ostranenie and
Verfremdung
are both based on the idea
of
turning
the common into the
unfamiliar,
but fairies or
talking
animals are not
at all common.
They
do not have referents in
empirical reality.
Moreover,
the
fairy
tale
is,
in
Shklovsky's
sense,
one
of the most canonized
genres. Although
ostranenie and
Verfremdung
are
ambiguous concepts,
both
primarily designate
rhetorical
strategies.
Suvin, however,
uses
estrangement
to characterize the
relation between the fictional and
empirical
worlds?in this sense,
an
estranged
fictional world is a world
containing
marvelous
elements,
elements which are not
(yet) part
of the world we live in.
In
sf,
all kinds of marvelous
things may happen. People
can travel in
time,
exceed the
speed
of
light,
and do
many
other
things
that,
according
to our
present
knowledge,
we will never
achieve in the real world.
Contrary
to Suvin's
definition,
these marvelous acts are not
presented
in an
estranged way;
rather
they
are
rationalized and made
plausible.
In a
fairy
tale,
an evil witch can wave
her
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372
SCIENCE FICTION
STUDIES,
VOLUME 35
(2008)
magic
wand and make
people disappear. Judging by
our
empirical
world this is
no more realistic than the idea of
teleportation
as we
know it thanks to Star Trek.
Still,
we have
no
problem
at all
identifying
which
"magical" disappearance
belongs
to the world of the
fairy
tale and which to sf. This is because sf
employs
an aesthetics
of technology
and tries to
naturalize
its nova. A witch is
unquestionably part
of the
fairy
tale
iconography,
while such machines and
devices as in Star
Trek,
for
example,
look
technical;
they
are
visual
extrapolations
of tools we use in
everyday
life. It is not so much the technical
possibility
of
"beaming"
that identifies Star Trek
as sf?since
"beaming"
is
technically
impossible
(so far)?but
rather its techno-scientific look. The formal framework
of sf is not
estrangement,
but
exactly
its
opposite,
naturalization.
On a
formal
level,
sf
does not
estrange
the
familiar,
but rather makes the
strange familiar.
According
to Patrick
Parrinder, "[f)or
Suvin
...
estrangement
in fiction is first
and foremost a matter of
choosing
a
plot
that is non-realistic in the sense that it
is determined
by
the novum"
(39).
Parrinder's
interpretation
does not
really
make
sense, either,
because what the novum
shapes primarily
is the world
of
the
story.
It follows that the
plot
is also influenced
by
the
novum; however,
what
gets
estranged
in sf?in Suvin's sense?is not the
plot (or
the
story),
but the fictional
universe. In other words:
story
and
plot
can
only
be "non-realistic" because
they
unfold in a marvelous universe that differs from the one we live in. Suvin's
(and
also
Parrinder's)
problem
is that the classical
narratological
triad of
plot, story,
and
style
does not
actually
describe the world a
story
takes
place
in.
Somehow,
the fictional world has to be
part
of it
implicitly,
because the
story
cannot take
place
in a
vacuum; but,
ultimately,
the fictional world is not
something
formalistic
that
narratology truly
cares about.
Formalism,
as
well
as
structuralism,
both have
a blind
spot
when it comes to fictional
worlds;
they
do not
provide proper
tools
to describe the
ontology
of a fictional universe. This is a
major
source of
confusion in Suvin's
theory,
because he
constantly speaks
of the formal
framework and he
continuously employs
formal
categories
to describe what is
clearly
an
aspect o/the ontology
of the fictional world.
It becomes obvious that Suvin uses
estrangement differently
from his
predecessors
when we look at his
comparison
of Brecht's work with sf: "In
sf,
the
attitude of
estrangement?used by
Brecht in a
different
way,
within a still
predominantly
'realistic' context?has
grown
into the
formal framework
of the
genre" (Metamorphoses
7;
emphasis
in
original).
This
enigmatic
sentence shows
Suvin's difficulties in
fusing
Brecht and sf. Brecht does not fit into the
naturalistic/estranged opposition
Suvin
established,
and
so
Suvin is forced to
introduce the term
"realistic,"
which he will not use
later,
and whose exact
meaning
remains unclear.7
Obviously,
Brecht's
plays employ
modes of
estrangement;
but
they
neither
belong
to sf nor to a related
genre; they
are
part
of
a "realistic context." This means that when it comes to
Brecht,
"estranged"
probably
does not describe the characteristics of the fictional
world,
since there
are no marvelous elements in his
plays.
In absolute
opposition
to what Suvin
claims,
it is
actually
in Brecht*
s works that
estrangement
functions
as a
formal
framework.
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THINGS MADE STRANGE 373
Cognition, Cognition Effect,
and Naturalization. So
far,
I have not mentioned
Suvin's
concept
of
"cognition,"
which in his view is also essential for
defining
sf.
It is
precisely
the combination of
estrangement
and
cognition
that sets sf off from
other
estranged genres.
As with
estrangement,
Suvin
applies cognition
to rather
different
things.
In the
preface
of
Metamorphoses,
he writes that sf must be
"perceived
as not
impossible
with the
cognitive (cosmological
and
anthropological)
norms of the author's
epoch" (Metamorphoses viii).
In the same
paragraph,
he also asserts that sf is "a realistic
irreality,
with humanized
nonhumans,
this-worldly
Other Worlds and so forth"
(Metamorphoses
viii).
Here
cognition
seems to mean that the novum,
despite
its marvelous
character,
is
rendered as
possible?"this-worldly."
The
emphasis
lies
on
appearance
and
perception;
the novum must
appear
as
cognitive.
In other
words,
cognition
here
seems to be identical with what I call naturalization. This is also in line with the
approach
of Carl
Freedman,
who
speaks
of a
"cognition
effect" rather than of
"cognition"
as such: "The crucial issue for
generic
discrimination is not
any
epistemological judgment
external to the text itself
on
the
rationality
or
irrationality
of the latter's
imaginings,
but rather
...
the attitude of the text
itself
to the kind of
estrangements being performed"
(18).
Up
to this
point, cognition
seems to be
mainly
a
formal
category,
but for
Suvin,
there is more at stake. Since sf
appears
as
this-worldly,
it
implies?
contrary
to
fantasy
or the
fairy
tale?a connection with the
empirical reality
of the
reader. It follows from this that "sf sees the norms of
any age, including
emphatically
its own,
as
unique, changeable" (Metamorphoses 7);
in other
words,
sf is
constantly historicizing
its worlds?it is the materialist
genre par
excellence?which
explains why
the declared Marxist Suvin is so attracted to it.
In this
sense,
cognition
is even more a
part
of the
perceptual process;
it
actually
becomes an
activity
of the reader.
Suvin,
again,
does not
properly distinguish
between the
properties
of a text and their
(desired) effect(s).
For
him,
the elicited
cognitive
effect in a reader and the formal
means
by
which this is achieved
seem
to be identical
(at
least,
they
both fall under the term of
"cognition").
Suvin's use of
cognition
is also somewhat
tautological.
As I noted
above,
for
Brecht the
goal
of
estrangement
is to let
things appear
as
historically produced
and
changeable?and any properly estranged
work of art should achieve this
cognitive
effect
(see
also Parrinder
40).
Aside from
that,
Suvin's and Brecht's
concepts
almost match at this
point (they
both aim at
historicizing
and de
naturalizing
the
present),
but
they try
to achieve their
goals by
different,
if not
quite opposite,
means. Brecht's
plays estrange
the
normal,
while sf naturalizes
the
strange.
In the first
chapter
of
Metamorphoses, cognition
seems to include formal and
receptive aspects,
and Suvin
says explicitly
that
cognition
should not be confused
with "scientific
vulgarization
or even
technological prognostication"
(Metamorphoses 9).
Clearly,
this is
targeted
at the more fannish
approaches
that
try
to define sf
by
its
allegedly
inherent scientific
quality.
Later in the
book,
Suvin
seems to alter his
position. Suddenly,
he demands that the "novum is
postulated
and validated
by
the
post-Cartesian
and
post-Baconian
scientific method"
(Metamorphoses
64-65;
emphasis
in
original).
In
my understanding,
this stands
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374
SCIENCE FICTION
STUDIES,
VOLUME 35
(2008)
in direct contradiction to his earlier definition of
cognition
and, moreover,
manifests a kind of
relapse
into a naive fan
position. Although
Suvin is
quick
to
add that this "does not mean that the
novelty
is
primarily
a matter of scientific
facts"
(Metamorphoses 65),
the
question
remains as to what else it could mean.
Of
course,
Suvin is aware that sf can be
completely
unscientific and he even
quotes Kingsley
Amis,
who states that the novum is based "in science or
technology,
or
pseudo-science
or
pseudo-technology" (Metamorphoses 65).
Nevertheless,
a
pseudoscientific
look alone is not
enough
for
Suvin;
sf also needs
to indicate "the
presence
of scientific
cognition
as the
sign
of or correlative of a
method
(way, approach, atmosphere, sensibility)
identical to that of a modern
philosophy
of science"
(Metamorphoses 65).
Gregory
Renault
rightly complains
that
"[t]he
tough-sounding
references to
'validation'
by
the 'scientific method' are never
explained,
much less
documented"
(119).
It is not clear at all what Suvin means
by "presence
of
scientific
cognition."
Is it
a
quality
of the fictional world
or
does it describe the
inner
workings
of the novum? Does Suvin here
only
want to
say
that because sf
naturalizes the novum it also
implies
a
scientific-technological
world-view,
and
therefore is connected to the
empirical
world? If
only
the latter is
intended,
then
his rhetoric seems
quite
overblown.
In his
definition,
Suvin short-circuits different kinds of
estrangement
in sf.
There are
probably
several reasons for this. One must not
forget
that Suvin was
in fact one of the first academics to take sf
seriously
and therefore needed to
legitimize
the
object
of his research. This
may
well be the reason
why
he resorts
to
Shklovsky, although
the
concept
of ostranenie does not fit Suvin's
project
at
all.
Also,
he is hindered
by
the fact that formalism does not
provide
a
proper
framework
to describe fictional worlds.
Thus,
the references to Brecht serve to
bring
sf into the realms of
"high
literature." Suvin and Brecht also have similar
goals. They
both are interested in
estrangement
as a means of
critical?i.e.,
socialist?examination of the
present.
The fact that Brecht sees
estrangement
as
a
quasi-scientific procedure
is an additional bonus.
Another
point
in Suvin's
agenda
is directed more at the sf
community:
Suvin
wants to delimit "real" sf to a small set of texts with critical
impetus.
His
definition is also meant as a
"proof
that most books sold under the sf label do not
count as
part
of the
genre.
Suvin tries to ban
myths, fairy
tales,
and
pulp
sf from
cognitive
literature,
but at the same time he tries to include such
early Utopian
novels and satires as
Gulliver's Travels
(see
Renault
131).
This is
probably
the
reason for his
ambiguous
use of
cognition.
On the one
hand,
sf
only
has to
appear
as
cognitive
(otherwise
there would not be
any
room
for, e.g.,
H.G.
Wells),
but
at the
same time it has to be validated
by
the "Post-Baconian
method,"
or else
even the most ludicrous
space opera
would fit into the
genre.8
Diegetic Estrangement.
So
far,
I have demonstrated that
estrangement
is not the
primary
formal directive of sf.
Nevertheless, estrangement
is not
entirely
alien to
the
genre.
Sf
frequently produces
an effect that is at least
analogous
to it. Whether
there
are creatures
(human
or of other
species) traveling
in time or to unknown
planets,
or new inventions that
change
the face of the
earth,
or hideous monsters
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THINGS MADE STRANGE
375
on a
rampage?whenever
a marvelous element is introduced into a
seemingly
realistic
world,
a collision
occurs
between two
systems
of
reality, producing
an
estranging
effect. The familiar
appears
in new
surroundings
and is
thereby
re
contextualized.
As an
example,
I will
analyze
a scene from Richard Fleischer's
Soy
lent Green
(1973).
In the
year
2022
overpopulation
has become the main
problem
of New
York
City.
The
city
is
utterly
overcrowded and natural food is so rare that
people
must eat
synthetic
food. In this
setting,
the main
protagonist
Thorn is
investigating
a case of homicide in a
luxury apartment.
With almost ecstatic
joy,
he
opens
the
faucet,
runs the water over his
hands,
and smells the
soap: "[He]
is so entranced
with the
taken-for-granted
sensual
pleasures
of a middle class bathroom that it is
impossible
to look at the bathroom in the film as a familiar
place"
(Sobchack
132). Thus,
a
quite prosaic
and
totally
common room is transformed
by
estrangement
into a
place
of
pure joy;
the audience realizes their
(unconscious)
daily luxury.
It is this kind of
"making strange"
that Suvin
probably
has in mind in the term
"estrangement," yet
it is based on a
principle
different from
Shklovsky's
and
Brecht's
concepts.
The bathroom in
Soy
lent Green is not
estranged formally.
There is no
surprising editing,
there are no unusual camera
angles.
The whole
scene is filmed in one
shot;
the camera work is
quite
unobtrusive and functional.
It is
essentially
Thorn's behavior that creates the effect of
estrangement.
Without
his exuberant
joy,
the
scene would
hardly appear strange.
The effect of
estrangement
in
Soy
lent Green derives from the character's behavior and is
therefore
part
of the
diegesis,
the fictional
world;
it arises because Thorn acts
unusually
in what
appears
to be a
realistic world.
When Suvin writes about
estrangement,
he
usually
does not mean
ostranenie,
but
diegetic estrangement,
the collision of
contradicting
elements on the level of
the
story.
Such incidents of collision
may
be
produced
via
unexpected
character
reactions
(such
as Thorn's in
Soy
lent
Green),
or
by
the introduction of
"impossible images,"
such as,
for
example, ships
stranded in a
desert in Close
Encounters
of
the Third Kind
(1977).
In the second
example, again estrangement
does not arise from a formal
operation,
but from the fact that these
ships
are
where
they
cannot be?a fact that is illustrated
realistically.
The
concept
of
estrangement
is not the formal framework of sf?and Suvin
actually says
so
himself when he states that
"| t]he
effect of such
factual reporting
of fictions
is one of
confronting
a set normative
system
...
with a
point
of view
implying
a new set of norms"
(Metamorphoses
6;
emphasis added).
"Factual
reporting
of fictions" is
merely
another
way
of
saying "naturalizing
the
marvelous,"
and when Suvin
speaks
of "a new set of norms" he
obviously
is not
referring
to formal
aspects
(how
the
story
is
told),
but to fictional ones
(the
rules
governing
a fictional
world). Therefore,
in
sf,
the effect of
estrangement
does not
arise
only
from
making things strange,
but from the naturalization of the
marvelous.9
Suvin extends
Shklovsky's already
broad
concept
of
estrangement
to include
all
aspects
that are,
in his
opinion,
central to sf:
fictional,
stylistic-formal,
and
generic
ones.
Thus,
for
him,
estrangement
denominates the
following
six
aspects:
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376
SCIENCE FICTION
STUDIES,
VOLUME 35
(2008)
The nature
of
the
fictional
world,
first in terms of its
relationship
to our
empirical reality,
and then
deriving
from
that,
the
genre
of the
respective
film/text; then, further,
a formal
process
justifying
the
novum,
the naturalization
of
the
marvelous,
and
the
opposite process: making
the
familiar strange, and,
an
analogous process
on
the fictional
level,
making things strange
on the
level
of
the
story,
while
both
processes
serve the same
goal,
which is the
de-automatization
of
perception,
the
seeing
of the familiar anew.
It is essential to restrict Suvin's
ambiguous
notion of
estrangement
and to
distinguish
its different
aspects. Firstly,
we have to
get
rid of Suvin's
estranged
genres; here,
"estranged"
can
easily
be
replaced
with "marvelous." Suvin's use
is
prone
to cause
misunderstandings
and hence does not
carry any
advantage.
Next,
we must differentiate between the formal and the fictional
processes
that
can be
employed
in
creating
an
estranging
effect. The
process
of
normalizing
the
alien I call
naturalization,
while the formal-rhetorical act of
making
the familiar
strange (in
Shklovsky's
sense)
will be named
defamiliarization.
For
estrangement
on the level of the
story,
I introduce the term
ofdiegetic estrangement,
and for the
receptive aspect (that is,
the effect
on the
audience)
just
estrangement.
Consequently,
in
sf,
estrangement
can be achieved in two
ways, by
means of
defamiliarization or
by diegetic estrangement.10
Suvin's definition does not
distinguish
between
fictional,
stylistic-formal,
and
receptive aspects,
but until we differentiate these
levels,
we cannot answer
the
question
whether and how sf
estranges
its content. It is not
enough
to,
for
example,
define
estrangement simply
as "a rhetorical effect created
by
the use of
specific stylistic
devices,"
as
Philippe
Mather does
(187).
This should be obvious
when
examining
Mather's
own
examples:
the deserted cities in
Omega
Man
(1961)
or
On the Beach
(1959)
seem
strange
and
creepy
not because its
inhabitants have been made invisible
by "specific stylistic
devices,"
but because
the sites have been
actually
abandoned.
Diegetic Estrangement
and Defamiliarization. The distinctions
among
naturalization, defamiliarization,
and
diegetic estrangement
lies at the
very
heart
of sf. In the
following passages,
I will concentrate on the
relationship
between
naturalization and
defamiliarization,
sketching briefly
how
they
interact.
Naturalization is the basic formal
process
noticeable in sf. Like
defamiliarization,
it is located on a formal level
(in
contrast to
diegetic estrangement,
which is a
fictional
phenomenon
on the level of the
story).
Still,
diegetic estrangement
and
naturalization are
closely
linked;
the novum must have been naturalized before
diegetic estrangement
can take
place. Cognitively, diegetic estrangement
comes
into
play
at a later
stage
than naturalization
(and defamiliarization). First,
sf
depicts
the novum as
compatible
with our
world; then,
an
estranging
effect can
only
follow when the viewer becomes aware of some recontextualization.
Defamiliarization,
on
the other
hand,
is a
purely
formal
phenomenon.
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THINGS MADE STRANGE
377
I will illustrate the interaction between these mechanisms with an
example
of
the
popular
motif of a
change
in scale. In The Incredible
Shrinking
Man
(1957)
the
body
of the
protagonist
shrinks after radioactive contamination. The drastic
change
in size lets familiar
objects
of our
daily
life
appear
in a
completely
different
light.
To the "Tom Thumb'Mike
protagonist,
an
ordinary
house becomes
a
dangerous trap.
First a cat and later
a
spider
are
suddenly threatening
menaces,
and a doll's house seems to be the
only
safe
place.
What The Incredible
Shrinking
Man demonstrates
has,
at first
glance, nothing
to do with defamiliarization. The altered dimensions are not a formal device in
Shklovsky's
sense,
a rhetorical
procedure
that renders the familiar
strange.
When
Tolstoy
describes
a
Napoleonic
battle in an unusual
way (to
cite one of
Shklovsky's examples),
he does not
change
the
object
of his
description.
A battle
remains a battle even if it is delineated in an unconventional
way.
The
tiny
protagonist
in The Incredible
Shrinking
Man,
on
the other
hand,
is no
longer
a
"normal" man shown in an unusual
way.
In this
movie,
estrangement
takes
place
on
the level of the
story,
and the
special
formal trick is that this
shrinking
is
presented "realistically."
Although
sf is
primarily
based
on
naturalizing
the
marvelous, however,
defamiliarization is not unknown to the
genre. Many
familiar
objects
are rendered
strange
in The Incredible
Shrinking
Man. Furniture
appears
enormous,
a cat
appears suddenly
as a
gigantic
monster,
and a nail is
employed
as a lance to battle
a
spider.
At first
sight,
these
examples
may appear
as
paradigmatic
of
defamiliarization,
but there is one
crucial difference from
Shklovsky's examples.
In The Incredible
Shrinking
Man,
objects only appear strange
because the movie
adopts
the
perspective
of its
protagonist;
it focalizes
on
his
point
of view.11 The
audience shares the main character's
perspective
and not that of a
(more
or
less)
neutral narrator or a non-marvelous character. We would not see
any
gigantic
furniture,
nor a
"monster"-cat,
if it were not for the film's
point
of
localization,
which is the shrunken
person.
If,
for
example,
we were to share the
point
of view
of his
(not
radioactively
contaminated) fiancee,
we would
merely
see a
tiny
man
in familiar domestic
surroundings.
The unusual
point
of view is
possible
because the film has
completed
its
naturalization,
and hence the audience has
accepted
the novum. The movie
focalizes on
and/or
through
the naturalized novum.
This focalization can be
understood as a
part
of sfs rhetorical
strategy.
The film "behaves as if its novum
were normal and
plausible,
and it does so not
only
on
the
"superficial"
level of its
technological
aesthetics,
but also on the narrative level. The narration
accepts
the
novum as well and takes its
point
of
view,
thereby performing
a narrative
naturalization.
The result of this narrative naturalization could be called a
second-degree
defamiliarization,
which
only
comes into effect after a
successful naturalization
has taken
place.
This kind of defamiliarization that follows from
diegetic
estrangement
is far more
frequent
in sf than
"normal,"
primary
defamiliarization.
This is also true for Sobchack's
example
of
Soy
lent Green. If an
apple,
a
piece
of
meat,
or fresh water from the
tap
are
rendered
strange by
the camera's unusual
lingering,
this is
again
an
example
of
second-degree
defamiliarization. The
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378
SCIENCE FICTION
STUDIES,
VOLUME 35
(2008)
narration is focalized on the
protagonist,
and
together, they
marvel at the various
miracles.
The interaction between naturalization and defamiliarization can result in
different forms. The most extreme instance of naturalization is achieved when a
film shows the
subjective point
of view of an alien
being.
Mather lists several
exemplary
movies: Westworld
(1973), RoboCop (1987),
and Predator
(1987);
there are other
examples,
such as The Terminator
(1984),
Alien3
(1992), and,
of
course, 2001: A
Space Odyssey (1968),
in which we
regularly
"see" the action
from HAL's
point
of view. A variant is the view
through
an
insect's
compound
eye,
as in The
Fly (1958)
and Phase IV
(1974).
In all these
examples,
the
narration is
completely
focalized
through
the novum;
we
literally
see with
strange
eyes.
First-degree
defamiliarization,
which is not based on a naturalized
novum,
is
far rarer in
sf;
it even contradicts the
genre
in certain
ways.
If the novum is not
naturalized,
but made
strange,
sf s
central
device?rendering
the marvelous
possible?is
made obsolete. This
is,
in
my opinion,
the reason
why
sf
generally
prefers
a
non-experimental
mode of
narration,12
what David Bordwell calls
classical narration. Most non-classical modes of narration
try
to defamiliarize the
story,
and this conflicts with sf
s
tendency
to naturalize?the result would be a
"defamiliarized
estrangement."
Most of the
time,
first-degree
defamiliarization does not
appear
in
pure
form,
but is used to
support diegetic estrangement.
Letters From a
Dead Man
(1986),
for
example,
shows a somber
post-doomsday
world where
people vegetate
in
contaminated ruins. The film features
many examples
of
diegetic estrangement,
among
them the
puny
Christmas tree towards the end?arid branches decorated
with wire and candle
stumps.
This does not count as a
formally
defamiliarized
image
of an
ordinary
Christmas
tree,
but as its
poor
imitation. Yet besides those
moments of
diegetic estrangement,
Letters
from
a Dead Man also
employs
defamiliarization. The whole movie is tinted a
dirty brown-yellow,
which in
interior scenes is sometimes
interchanged
with
a
sickly
blue hue. This
clearly
is
an
example
of defamiliarization: the
picture
is
formally
made
strange,
but the hue
is not meant to indicate that the world of the movie is
actually
monochrome.
Rather,
it underscores the morbid and
degenerated
character of the deserted
city
on a formal level
(the
same
operation
is used in Lars von Trier's The Element
of
Crime
[1984]).
The
Angry
Red Planet
(1959)
uses
the
same
technique
(the
scenes
on Mars are tinted
red),
but for a different result.
Although
the red color also
provokes
an
estranging
effect,
this time it is an instance of
diegetic estrangement.
The red hue is meant to visualize the
light
on the Red
Planet,
therefore the color
is
diegetic.
In Phase IV we meet a third variant.
Here,
the
landscape
is covered
with a
yellow
insecticide.
Although
all three
examples
exhibit the
coloring
of
a
scene,
each one is different. In Phase
IV,
the color is
part
of the
profilmic reality,
the
landscape
is
painted yellow,
while in the two other movies the film stock was
colorized later.
In Letters
from
a Dead
Man,
defamiliarization is
employed
to
support diegetic
estrangement,
while in Phase IV defamiliarization is used to create
diegetic
estrangement
in the first
place.
As this is rather
rare,
I will
analyze
this
example
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THINGS MADE STRANGE
379
in more
detail. In the
only
feature film
by
Saul
Bass,
the
story
is about mutated
intelligent
ants that
try
to take over the world. In contrast with other sf movies
populated
with mutated insects
(including
Tarantula
[1954],
Them!
[1955],
The
Beginning of
the
End[\951],
or
The
Deadly
Mantis
[1957]),
the ants in Phase IV
appear unchanged. They
are still
tiny
insects,
which
distinguish
themselves from
the "normal"
type only by
their unusual
intelligence.
Since ants cannot be
trained,
and as artificial ants would not have been a
convincing
substitute in the mid
1970s,
the filmmakers had to film common ants
following
more or less their
normal routines. In the
film,
many
scenes are shot with extreme macro lenses as
we know them from educational movies. Unlike in most
documentaries,
the ants
of Phase IV are
deliberately being staged
like human
beings.
An
uncanny
score
and
unnatural,
almost
expressionistic, lighting suggest
that these little creatures
are
up
to
something. Early
in the
movie,
members of different ant
species
meet
and "discuss" their
strategy.
At this
point,
the film cuts between
close-ups
of the
various heads
(in
the shot/re verse-shot-tradition of a "conventional"
dialogue
scene),
and
thereby suggests
that these insects
actually
are
communicating.
We
do not hear their
"talk,"
of
course,
except
for some
chirping
noises,
but
still,
the
editing
of the scene and the
"gesticulating"
tentacles of the ants render the
impression
that a
lively
discussion is
taking place.
Overall,
the ants in Phase IV
rarely
behave in an unusual
way: they just
do the
things
ants
normally
would do.
Still,
Phase IV
manages?by applying
such formal devices as
close-ups, lighting,
music,
and
editing
to
produce
a
specific
effect?to leave the
impression
that
they
are far from normal. This is a
paradigmatic example
of
defamiliarization, which,
in this
case,
does not make us see the ants
anew,
but rather seems to be
changing
them. In Bass's
movie,
defamiliarization does not result in the de-automatization
of our
perception,
but rather in
creating
a
deception.
Diegetic estrangement
and defamiliarization can also coexist without much
interference. In John Frankenheimer's Seconds
(1960), Arthur,
a
well-situated
man in his
fifties,
gets
the chance to
exchange
his
absolutely average
existence
with a life of his choice. A
mysterious organization
offers him the
opportunity
to
lead a new
life with a new
identity
and
a
changed physical appearance.
Everything
seems to work out
perfectly;
still,
Arthur?who is now
called
Tony
and looks now "like" Rock Hudson?cannot
get
used to this new
life. He
understands that all his new friends
belong
to the
organization,
too. He is
part
of
a
big
charade and still no
closer to
fulfilling
his "true self."
The title
sequence
of Seconds shows
Tony
in
close-ups;
he is
being
filmed
with extreme
wide-angle
lenses and thus
appears
grotesquely
distorted,
nonhuman,
and
strange.
This intro is a case of defamiliarization in its
purest
form.
One of the most familiar
objects,
the human
face,
suddenly
seems
scary
and
strange?indeed,
we do see this face anew.
Apart
from the
opening sequence,
Seconds is
(for
the most
part)
filmed in a
sober,
rather flat black and white. There
are no
spectacular special
effects;
the novum is
completely
naturalized. The
radical
change
in the
protagonist's appearance
is
depicted
as a
large
but normal
medical
operation?although
at the
end,
when
Tony
realizes what will
happen
to
him,
again
extreme
wide-angle
shots are
used. These moments remain
exceptions,
however.
Normality
rules,
and it is
precisely
this
normality
from which the
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380
SCIENCE FICTION
STUDIES,
VOLUME 35
(2008)
movie's effect stems. An
audience?and,
after a
while,
Tony,
too?understands
that here
nothing
is
truly
"normal." In this
movie,
nothing
is as it
appears;
even
Tony's
best friends and his lover are
part
of an immense
setup. Finally, Tony
is
totally estranged
from himself. He understands that he does not know who he
actually
is,
that he does not have
any
idea of what he
wants,
and that all his
decisions have been controlled
by
unknown forces.
In
Seconds,
defamiliarization and
diegetic estrangement
alternate and
complement
each other. In the title
sequence,
the human
body
is
portrayed
as
strangely
as
possible.
Yet,
since the titles are not
really part
of the
diegesis,
this
does not interfere with the fictional world but rather acts as a
commentary
on a
meta level. This is the film itself
speaking,
so to
say,
and there is no
danger
of a
collision between defamiliarization and
naturalization,
since the film has not
yet
established its fictional world. The
underlying
message
in this
beginning, though,
is clear
enough:
man is
estranged
from himself. The
story
of the film further
illustrates this. Man is not
only estranged
from his
body,
but also from his social
existence. His wishes and
hopes
turn out to be
poor
delusions. Seconds is an
example
of how
a
merely
formal defamiliarization can be continued
on the
fictional level.
Defamiliarized
Estrangement.
In Phase IV and
Angry
Red
Planet,
defamiliarization
serves to create
diegetic estrangement,
while in Seconds these
two
processes
are
kept apart.
The combination of
first-degree
defamiliarization
and
diegetic estrangement
in the
same
scene,
on the other
hand,
is
rare,
since sf
depends
on naturalization. A defamiliarized
estrangement
would
put
the
genre's
realistic illusion in
jeopardy.
While there are some movies with isolated
scenes
that combine both
devices,
there are almost no
examples
where this is maintained
throughout
a whole movie. A film that mixes the
processes
from time to time is
George
Lucas's first feature
film,
THX 1138
(1971).
Here,
we encounter a
sequence
in a kind of
prison,
which is a
seemingly
endless room without
walls,
floor,
or
ceiling. Everything
is
white;
even the characters are dressed in white and
their heads are shaved.
There are other sf movies that feature rooms
kept completely
white,
for
example
Mission to Mars
(2000)
and The Matrix
(1999). Compared
with these
two later
movies,
THX 1138 is more
radical,
since it
deliberately
violates
Hollywood's
rules
regarding
frame
composition
and "invisible"
editing.
Some
shots seem almost
"empty,"
with characters
only partly
visible at the
edge
of the
frame. In other
shots,
the
people
in the
foreground
are
photographed
out of focus
with the
speaking
character concealed. It is
already quite
difficult
to
keep
a sense
of orientation in such borderless rooms,
but on
top
of
this,
the
editing
adds to the
instability:
the film
jumps
from shot to
shot,
frequently breaking
the rules of the
180? line and of
continuity editing.
Such
"arbitrary" editing,
in combination with
the white
frames,
is
highly disorienting
and
disturbing.
The audience has almost
no
point
of reference and soon feels
completely
lost.
Only
a few scenes of THX
1138 are
staged
this
way,
however. This is no
surprise,
since such a
highly
disorienting style
makes it difficult to tell a
story.
Hence,
when it is
important
that
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THINGS MADE STRANGE
381
the
(quite
conventional)
plot
should be
understood,
the film's narration returns to
a "normal"?that
is,
conventional?style.
What is considered conventional?or what David Bordwell calls
classical?narration is not a static
entity,
however.
Many
of the formal and
narrational
gimmicks
common in
today's
blockbusters would have been
regarded
as
impossible
in the
Hollywood
of the 1940s
or
1950s. This also holds true for sf
film,
although
sf is
quite
conservative
compared
to the
Hollywood
mainstream.
Event Horizon
(1997)
and Fantastic Four
(2005),
for
example,
both use the
combination of zoom with reverse
traveling
known as
Vertigo effect.
This effect
results in a
highly
visible
change
in the frame's
geometry
and is an
example
of
defamiliarization. In both
movies,
the
vertigo
effect is used to
depict processes
of
the
psyche?there
is no direct conflict with the naturalization of a novum.
Something analogous
would have been
impossible
in an sf movie of the 1950s.
There is a
tendency
in
today's
sf movies towards a
defamiliarization that has
no
diegetic
motivation. An
exemplary
film is The Matrix
(1999),
probably
the
most influential sf movie of the last decade. For the main
part
of the
movie,
defamiliarizing special
effects serve to
depict
the fictional world in a
nevertheless
plausible way. Early
on,
a kind of electronic insect is
surgically
removed from the
main
protagonist's?Neo's?belly
button. Soon
afterwards,
he touches a
mirror,
which then turns
liquid.
This is a standard use of
special
effects;
they supply
a
setting
that would have been
impossible
to create otherwise.
One of The Matrix's most
spectacular special
effects is the so-called bullet
time
effect.
Here,
a scene is slowed down or even
brought
to
halt,
so that we can
view motions and actions that are too fast to notice under normal
circumstances,
as for
example
a
flying
bullet
(hence
the
name).
At the same
time,
although
time
is on
hold,
the camera
stays
in motion and moves inside the frozen
scenery.
The
Matrix uses this effect in different
ways.
The scene in which Neo
dodges flying
bullets is "classical."
Here,
a
highly defamilarizing
effect is used to
depict
a fact
possible only
inside the fictional world?Neo
possesses superpowers
that enable
him to evade bullets.
Completely
different is a scene at the film's
beginning,
when
Trinity
"freezes"
during
a
fight
with a
cop.
The action
stops, Trinity
"floats"
in mid-air without
moving,
while the camera turns a
half circle around her.
Although
both scenes make use of the same
effect,
there is a
considerable
difference. In the
bullet-dodging
scene,
Neo is still
moving;
the
slowing
down of
the action is
only
needed to show how fast his movements have become. In the
Trinity
scene,
neither she nor the
cop
are
moving; everything
has come to a
stop,
and
only
the camera moves. If this were meant to be a
diegetic
effect,
it would
mean that time had
stopped
in the scene?which would not make sense in the
story.
Here,
the bullet time
effect
has no
diegetic
motivation;
it is
employed
to
baffle the audience and to
display
the level of technical
expertise
used in the film.
Defamiliarization and
diegetic estrangement begin
to blend in The Matrix.
What the film does is
"against
the rules"?to use the same effect for
diegetic
estrangement
and defamiliarization. What at first
appears
to be an
identical
device?time
stops?are
in fact two
different
things
in this fictional world. I am
not
suggesting
that The Matrix is the first movie to do
this,
but the film's
immense box-office success has
definitely helped
to soften the
"unspoken"
law
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382
SCIENCE FICTION
STUDIES,
VOLUME 35
(2008)
that
previously
forbade the
mixing
of defamiliarization and
diegetic estrangement.
Slipstream (2005),
for
example,
shows similar tendencies. The film's
protagonist
owns a kind of time machine that enables him to rewind actions as with a VCR's
remote control. To illustrate
this,
the film uses various effects: whole shots or
parts
of a scene
freeze,
and some scenes are rewound in fast motion. Besides
those
diegetically-motivated manipulations
of
time,
Slipstream
also
employs
techniques
of defamiliarization that have no real
diegetic
motivation.
During
a
shoot-out,
for
example,
the camera starts to
spin
and shows the
combatants, who,
together
with the
background, gradually
start to blur. In the
end,
all we can see is
the
background changing
behind static characters. From the
perspective
of the
story,
this makes no
sense, since none of the
protagonists
are
moving during
the
shooting.
In a later scene, the two main characters are
having
a
conversation,
which is
depicted
in an unusual
parallel montage.
The film
jumps
between two
locations?the inside of a car and a few
steps
in front of it?while the
dialogue
goes
on
without
any interruption.
Here,
a
conversation is
taking place
at two
locations at two different times. This scene could be taken as a marker that time
has come out of
joint
inside the
diegetic
world. If that were the case, however,
it
would
only
be visible for the audience and not for the
protagonists. Consequently,
the film uses
defamiliarization,
but is not
depicting
a
diegetic
fact with it. At the
end,
this is
brought
to the extreme when the credits are first shown in fast
motion,
then rewound and shown
again
at normal
speed.
Conclusion. I have shown that terms that seem
commonly accepted, upon
closer
inspection
often
display quite
a broad
variety
of
meanings.
This holds
especially
true for the term
"estrangement." Shklovsky,
Brecht, Bloch,
and Suvin all write
about
estrangement, yet they
all mean different
things by
it. While
Shklovsky's
ostranenie is
primarily
a
formal
operation,
Suvin's
estrangement
denotes a
phenomenon
on
the level of the
story?although
he himself does not seem to
fully
realize that. The aim of this article is to show that such distinctions
are not
signs
of
pure
academical
finickiness, but,
on the
contrary, point
to the
very
core of sf.
The interactions
among
naturalization, defamiliarization,
and
diegetic
estrangement
are
vital for the
way
sf works and how it affects an
audience,
and
I believe
my
distinctions can
aid
a better
understanding
of the
genre.13
NOTES
This
paper presents
a
condensed version of a
chapter
of
my
PhD thesis
on science fiction
film,
which is available as Die {Constitution des Wunderbaren. Zu einer Poetik des
Science-Fiction-Films. I am
grateful
to Daniela Casanova for her
help
with the translation.
1.
Personally,
I
prefer
to
speak
of sf not as a
genre
but as a
fictional-aesthetic
mode.
While a
genre
is an historic
entity,
a term used at a
specific
time
by
certain actors to
delineate a
related cluster of films and
texts,
a mode is an abstract and at least
partly
ahistorical
concept,
which traverses
times, countries,
styles,
and media. For the sake of
simplicity,
however,
I will
employ
the term
"genre"
in this
paper.
2. It is even more
complicated
since
Brecht,
in his
early writings,
uses the term
Entfremdung,
and
only
later
changes
to
Verfremdung
(Rulicke-Weiler 307).
Entfremdung
?commonly
translated as
"alienation"?is
an
important
term in Marxist
theory.
Marx,
following Hegel, argues
that in
capitalist society,
the worker is alienated from his
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THINGS MADE STRANGE
383
work?and,
ultimately,
also from his fellow human
beings,
and even from himself
?because he no
longer produces
for himself but is reduced to a
replaceable
link in the
chain of
production.
3. For
my
assessment of
Shklovsky's
ostranenie I draw
heavily
from
essays by
Renate
Lachmann
(1970)
and Frank Kessler
(1996),
both of which are available
only
in German.
Although Shklovsky
is
generally regarded
as a
representative
of Russian
formalism,
he
stands in
many ways
outside the formalist
project.
He was not
actually
interested in
literature as a
system,
and his
concept
of ostranenie was never
fully adopted by
theorists
such as Iurii
Tynianov
or Roman Jakobson
(Lachmann 237-44;
Tihanov
667-68).
4. Some authors believe that Brecht was
directly
influenced
by Shklovsky during
his
travel to Russia in
1935,
but this claim seems to be
largely
unfounded
(Lachmann 246-48;
Tihanov
687-88,
note
42).
5. Suvin follows Ernst Bloch in his
understanding
of
Verfremdung.
For
Bloch,
"the
real function of
estrangement
is?and must be?the
provision
of a
shocking
and
distancing
mirror above the
only
too familiar
reality;
the
purpose
of the
mirroring
is to arouse both
amazement and concern"
(125).
Bloch is closer to Brecht than to
Shklovsky,
since
estrangement
for him also can lead to a
critical
insight,
but he
conceptualizes
it as a
general principle
that is not limited to formal
aspects.
Furthermore, Bloch
distinguishes
between
"estrangement"
(understood
as a
general
effect)
and "alienation"
(understood
as
Marxist
Entfremdung).
For our
purposes,
such a distinction is not
helpful,
since Bloch
does not differentiate between formal and
diegetic "estrangement,"
but describes it in a
most
general way.
6. I
adopt
Tzvetan Todorov's
nomenclature,
which he
developed
in his
study
The
Fantastic
(1975).
Todorov
distinguishes
between three
types
of
genre,
the
uncanny,
the
fantastic,
and the
marvelous,
the latter
designating
fictional worlds that are not
compatible
with our
empirical
world. Like
Suvin,
Todorov is not
always
clear in his
definitions,
because he understands these
genres
as formal
categories, although they primarily
designate
the
ontology
of the fictional world: these
categories point
out not so much how
a
story
is
narrated,
but rather the
way
a fictional world is
being organized
and how it
relates to the world we
experience
in our
daily
life. So, in this
paper,
"marvelous" is used
to
designate
the nature of the
diegetic
world in contrast to the world we live in.
7. Freedman also states his difficulties with this
passage,
and
objects
that "Brecht is
in no sense a
literary
realist,
not even
allowing
for the
quotation
marks"
(19).
Freedman
seems to understand "realistic" as either a denomination for a historical
period
or as a
certain
style,
but neither
reading applies
to Brecht. This
probably
is a
misunderstanding
on
Freedman's
part,
since I believe that Suvin is
referring
to the fact that Brecht's
plays
lack marvelous elements and therefore do not
belong
to what Suvin calls
estranged genres.
8. In recent
articles,
Suvin not
only accepts
the idea of
emotional,
non-rational
cognition ("Cognitive
Emotions"),
but he also re-evaluates
fantasy
and comes to an
unexpected
conclusion: "Let me therefore
revoke,
probably
to
general regret, my
blanket
rejection
of fantastic fiction. The divide between
cognitive (pleasantly
useful)
and non
cognitive
(useless)
does not run between sf and fantastic fiction but inside
each?though
in rather different
ways
and in different
proportions,
for there are more obstacles to
liberating cognition
in the latter"
("Considering"
211).
The admission that
fantasy
and
other fantastic
genres
can be
cognitive
as well comes as
quite
a
surprise
and
poses
serious
problems. Ultimately,
it renders Suvin's definition
useless,
because if both sf and fantastic
fiction are
estranged
and can be
cognitive,
there is no
way
to tell them
apart.
The
problem
here, is,
once
more, the
blending
of a
proper
definition with the desired effect elicited in
a reader and a value
judgment.
I do not think that what Suvin here wants to
say
is that
fantasy
can
appear
as
this-worldly,
or
that it naturalizes its marvelous elements
(and
if so.
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384
SCIENCE FICTION
STUDIES,
VOLUME 35
(2008)
then I have to state that I do not
agree
with this notion: in most
cases, sf and
fantasy
can
easily
be told
apart by
their mere
appearance).
In this
quotation, "cognition"
seems to
mean
only
the critical reaction a text can
provoke
in a
reader,
and Suvin seems to be
acknowledging
(at
least
implicitly)
that this has little to do with the definition of a
genre
per
se.
9.
By
"naturalization" I denote a formal
process
and not the
ideological-critical
concept
coined
by
Roland Barthes in
Mythologies
(1972).
10. Suvin faults the translation of ostranenie as
"defamiliarization" as "somewhat
clumsy" (Metamorphoses
6),
but he does not
explain why
he thinks so. In
my opinion,
it
is essential to differentiate
clearly
between
Shklovsky's concept
and
diegetic
estrangement.
Since the German
language
offers
only
the term
Verfremdung,
in
my
doctoral thesis I
distinguish
between
diegetischer Verfremdung
and ostranenie.
However,
as
English
here has a
richer
vocabulary,
it would be wasteful not to make use of it.
11. See
Genette,
Narrative Discourse and Narrative Discourse Revisited.
12. This holds
especially
true for filmic
sf,
where non-classical narration is rare. In
written
sf,
there is much more
stylistic
variation.
Although
Golden
Age
sf is also
generally
told in a classical
way,
with the
development
of the New Wave a
greater stylistic variety
has been introduced into written sf.
13. In this
paper,
I could
only
scratch the surface of what I consider to be the essential
mechanism of sf. Much work still needs to be done
(parts
of which I have done in
my
doctoral
thesis). Here,
1 have restricted
myself
to
film,
a medium
that,
for various
reasons,
is more conservative than literature. It would be
interesting
to test whether
my
considerations are also valid for movements such as the New Wave or
cyberpunk,
which
both
attempted
renewals on a formal level.
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ABSTRACT
The
concept
of
"estrangement"
has been central to sf criticism ever since Darko Suvin
defined the
genre
as
creating
the effect of
"cognitive estrangement." By going
back to the
theories of Viktor
Shklovsky
and Bertolt
Brecht,
I will show how
Suvin,
in his
approach,
intermingles
formal, fictional,
generic,
and
receptive aspects
of
estrangement. Contrary
to Suvin's
assessment,
it is not sf s
primary
formal
operation
to render familiar
things
strange,
but to make the alien look
ordinary,
a
process
I call naturalization. In
sf,
estrangement
mainly happens
on a
diegetic
level,
when
a
marvelous element is introduced
into an
apparently
realistic world.
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