Today's the 7th🎂of my article exploring the subversive potential of #Tolstoyan #defamiliarisation. Freely available here: https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_subversive_potential_of_Leo_Tolstoy_s_defamiliarisation_a_case_study_in_drawing_on_the_imagination_to_denounce_violence/9468479
Short thread summary: T is primary example of master of
#literary technique of ‘ #defamiliarisation ’ (looking at the familiar as if new) to shake readers into recognising absurdity of common views & practices.
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Today's the 6th 🎂 of my article exploring the subversive potential of #Tolstoyan #defamiliarisation. Freely available here: https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_subversive_potential_of_Leo_Tolstoy_s_defamiliarisation_a_case_study_in_drawing_on_the_imagination_to_denounce_violence/9468479
Short thread summary: 1/ T is primary example of master of #literary technique of ‘#defamiliarisation’ (looking at the familiar as if new) to shake readers into recognising absurdity of common views & practices
The subversive potential of Leo Tolstoy’s ‘defamiliarisation’: a case study in drawing on the imagination to denounce violence
In his later years, Leo Tolstoy wrote numerous books, essays and pamphlets expounding his newly-articulated denunciations of all political violence, whether by dissidents or ostensibly legitimate states. If these writings have inspired many later pacifists and anarchists, it is partly thanks to his masterful deployment of the literary technique of ‘defamiliarisation’ – or looking at the familiar as if new – to shake readers into recognising the absurdity of common justifications of violence, admitting their implicit complicity in it, and noticing the process which numbed them into accepting such complicity. This paper discusses Tolstoy’s use of the imagination to defamiliarise and denounce violence, first by citing a number of typical examples, then by reflecting on four of its subversive characteristics: its disruption of automated perception, its implicit concession of some recognition, its corrosion of conventional respect for traditional hierarchies, and its encouragement of empathy.
Today's the 5th🎂of my article exploring the subversive potential of #Tolstoyan #defamiliarisation. Freely available here: https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_subversive_potential_of_Leo_Tolstoy_s_defamiliarisation_a_case_study_in_drawing_on_the_imagination_to_denounce_violence/9468479
Short thread summary: T is primary example of master of #literary technique of ‘#defamiliarisation’ (looking at the familiar as if new) to shake readers into recognising absurdity of common views & practices
The subversive potential of Leo Tolstoy’s ‘defamiliarisation’: a case study in drawing on the imagination to denounce violence
In his later years, Leo Tolstoy wrote numerous books, essays and pamphlets expounding his newly-articulated denunciations of all political violence, whether by dissidents or ostensibly legitimate states. If these writings have inspired many later pacifists and anarchists, it is partly thanks to his masterful deployment of the literary technique of ‘defamiliarisation’ – or looking at the familiar as if new – to shake readers into recognising the absurdity of common justifications of violence, admitting their implicit complicity in it, and noticing the process which numbed them into accepting such complicity. This paper discusses Tolstoy’s use of the imagination to defamiliarise and denounce violence, first by citing a number of typical examples, then by reflecting on four of its subversive characteristics: its disruption of automated perception, its implicit concession of some recognition, its corrosion of conventional respect for traditional hierarchies, and its encouragement of empathy.
Today's the 4th🎂of my article exploring the subversive potential of #Tolstoyan #defamiliarisation. Freely available here: https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_subversive_potential_of_Leo_Tolstoy_s_defamiliarisation_a_case_study_in_drawing_on_the_imagination_to_denounce_violence/9468479.
Short summary: T is primary example of master of #literary technique of ‘#defamiliarisation’ (looking at the familiar as if new) to shake readers into recognising absurdity of common views & practices
Article focuses on T’s #defamiliarization of common justifications of #violence (with examples), encouraging readers to admit their implicit #complicity & noticing process which numbed them into accepting such complicity
Then reflects on 4 specific #subversive characteristics of defam: #disruption of automated perception, implicit #concession of problem, corrosion of respect for traditional #hierarchies, & encouragement of #empathy
The subversive potential of Leo Tolstoy’s ‘defamiliarisation’: a case study in drawing on the imagination to denounce violence
In his later years, Leo Tolstoy wrote numerous books, essays and pamphlets expounding his newly-articulated denunciations of all political violence, whether by dissidents or ostensibly legitimate states. If these writings have inspired many later pacifists and anarchists, it is partly thanks to his masterful deployment of the literary technique of ‘defamiliarisation’ – or looking at the familiar as if new – to shake readers into recognising the absurdity of common justifications of violence, admitting their implicit complicity in it, and noticing the process which numbed them into accepting such complicity. This paper discusses Tolstoy’s use of the imagination to defamiliarise and denounce violence, first by citing a number of typical examples, then by reflecting on four of its subversive characteristics: its disruption of automated perception, its implicit concession of some recognition, its corrosion of conventional respect for traditional hierarchies, and its encouragement of empathy.
Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
Alex Christoyannopoulos