The idea of defamiliarization in accordance with the Russian critic Victor Shklovsky’s essay, Art as Technique, focuses on addressing the problem of habituation, in that “Afer we see an object several times, we begin to recognize it. The object is in front of us and we know about it, but we do not see it.” (Shklovsky, 721). The artistic technique of defamiliarization is utilized as a solution to the “automatism of perception”(Shklovsky, 721), essentially alienating the unconscious and routinized cognizance of objects. As stated by Shklovsky, “The technique of art is to make objects unfamiliar” (Shklovsky, 720), meaning its purpose is to create “a vision of the object instead of serving as means for knowing it” (Shklovsky, 723). The technique of defamiliarization is further used as a method of examination, unconcerned with the idea of unity, and rather focused on the form or structure of a text in lieu of its context. Thus, the reader is forced into the awareness of language, having perceptions altered through the focus of a particular object, making “the familiar seem strange by not naming the familiar object”(721).
Lucille Clifton’s poem, Cutting greens, could be brought into play as an example of Victor Shlkovsky’s Russian Formalist technique of defamiliarization. Clifton succeeds in making an ordinary thing such as cutting vegetables, a very strange and unusual experience through the use of different stylistic devices present throughout the text. Objects to which we usually create an automated response, such as cutting boards, pots, and vegetables, soon become foreign elements that require the understanding of words and how they work together to achieve the defamiliarizing effect on the reader.
The basic structure of the poem, which is of significance to a formalist analysis, consists of fifteen lines divided into two, from which the first six pivot around the act, the object, and the psychological involvement of the author in the poem. Clifton’s poem opens with a series of images, terms, and attributes commonly associated with people:
“curling them around / i hold their bodies in obscene embrace / thinking of everything but kinship. / collards and kale / strain against each strange other / away from my kissmaking hand and / the iron bedpot. / the pot is black, / the cutting board is black, / my hand, /and just for a minute / the greens roll black under the knife, / and the kitchen twists dark on its spine / and I taste in my natural appetite / the bond of live things everywhere.” (Clifton)
The poem opens with the use of the verb “curling”, followed by the preposition “around”, which when conjoined, creates a sense of manipulated positioning of the objects later described. The second line of the poem, “i hold their bodies in obscene embrace” (Clifton,2) begins with the verb “hold”, and uses the words “bodies”, and “obscene embrace”, terms and attributes commonly associated with people. This could be considered one of the first indications to the act of defamiliarization found, in the poem since it is not common to have an “obscene” experience while cutting vegetables, nor is it common to perceive vegetables as embodied entities. The imagery created from these words follows the purpose of the technique of defamiliarization, “to impart sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known” (Shklovsky, 720).
Similar to the consciousness established by the author through the use of active verbs that suggest control, and acting upon the course of the objects, the poem transitions into what seems to be a conscious detachment and avoidance of psychological involvement with the actions being committed. This is particularly seen through the line “thinking of everything but kinship” (Clifton,3). The word “kinship” conveys a sense of interconnectedness and relationship, possibly between the author and the greens she is preparing to cut. The direct mention of “collards and kale” (Clifton, 4), as the greens being worked and manipulated, precedes the previous lines. By introducing the objects directly in isolation from previous ideas, the reader is temporarily immersed in the familiarity of the objects, to be later detached from the conventional notions of the act of cutting greens, and instead, involved in a defamiliarizing experience where the automatism of perception is altered and ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different.
Sensuality and violence are predominant elements in Clifton’s poem, becoming clear and discernible on the fifth line, “strain against each strange other” (Clifton, 5). The bodies that were previously held in “obscene embrace” (Clifton, 2) are now forcibly mixed and joint, thus transmitting a sense of violence. This same idea is arguably reinforced by, “curling” (Clifton, 1), and “hold their bodies” (Clifton, 2), which substantially imply a sense of control and command from the author’s perspective. The idea of sensuality is further illustrated by the line “away from my kissmaking hand and” (Clifton, 6), which in its entirety, describes the greens as erotic, in respect to the speaker’s “kissmaking hand”.
As previously established, the first six lines of the poem revolve around the object and the act, as well as the command and manipulation of such. While the second half of the poem makes precise emphasis on the elements of its surroundings, which essentially helps create a sensory-based experience outside of routinized perceptions, where “the familiar seem strange” (Shklovsky, 721). These ideas begin to be explored on the seventh line of cutting greens, “the iron bedpot”. This line presents a juxtaposition of “bed” and “pot” which becomes a connotation for the sensuality found in the poem, considering the bedpot serves the purpose of an analogy where the bodies of plants join together. This analogy could also make reference to the previously mentioned bond established by the author; the interconnectedness between the object leads to expanding the view of such, as something more than an inorganic body, therefore going in accordance with Shklovsky’s technique of defamiliarization, by making the familiar alienated.
The inanimate objects presented in the foregoing lines of the poem use the adjective “black” as a connection between “pot” (Clifton, 8), “cutting board” (Clifton, 9), and “hand” (Clifton, 10 ), which could possibly be interpreted as to being black too. The repetition of such adjectives links all objects together, emphasizing the violence implied by the tools or devices that enforce the action over the greens. The act of cutting green morphs into an estrange ordeal, accentuated by the dark, almost threatening image created by the symbolism of blackness. Violence and blackness continue to be strengthened through the line “the greens roll black under the knife” (Clifton, 12) since it confirms the manipulation of the greens as they go under the device; the greens then become black, overthrown by all the elements that have manipulated them throughout the entirety of the poem.
The technique of defamiliarization as stated by Shklovsky, intends to “make things ‘unfamiliar,’ to make forms obscure, so as to increase the difficulty and the duration of perception” (Shklovsky, 720). The thirteenth line of the poem, “and the kitchen twists dark on its spine”(Clifton, 13), further explores such formalist technique by creating an uncommon perception of a kitchen; it is not often that we think of a kitchen as a being with a spine, capable of twisting dark. Therefore, the reader is introduced to a new viewpoint, reinforced by the violence and sensual process shown by the author. The kitchen, by twisting “dark on its spine”, insinuates disturbance towards the events taking place, and awareness of the setting from an outside and unfamiliar perspective. This also reiterates the idea of manipulation similarly found in the first lines of the poem, “curling”, and “strain against”, which as previously stated, transmitted a sense of control and command from an outside source.
The last two lines of cutting greens, “and I taste in my natural appetite / the bond of live things everywhere.” (Clifton, 14-15), recollect the entire significance of the poem by introducing the speaker’s “natural appetite”, which served the purpose of commanding the power responsible for all emotions and sensations throughout the poem. It is the “natural appetite”, the cause for a violent, and crude experience, also suggestive of the erotic imagery. It is the cause for the manipulation and morph of both the reader’s perspective and the inanimate objects which soon adopted a life of their own. These notions and interpretations are further reinforced by “The bond of living things everywhere” which finally concludes and confirms the presence of a bond built between the reader, the objects, the greens, and the overall experience of such.
It is of interest to know how there is no capitalization throughout the entirety of the poem. Even after periods, the following lines begin in minuscule. This could be argued to be a stylistic choice made to resemble a continuous thought or experience with a very private tone. The lack of capitalization thus creates a mood of softness and quiet, such as a momentary thought. This also resonates with the eleventh line of the poem, “and just for a minute”, which seems to transition from one thought to the next, from a precise perspective to another one. This could also be viewed as a technique to render unfamiliar the way a poem is supposed to look, and the particular rhythm a poem is expected to sustain. According to Shklovsky, the problem with rhythm lies in that “it eases the work by making it automatic” (Shklovsky, 726), as well as it “attempts to systematize the irregularities have been made” (Shklovsky, 726). Fundamentally, the poem breaks the habitual automatism perception, as well as it disproves conventional fallacies regarding the objective and thematic of poetry, thus targeting a public different to “those who urge the idea of the economy” (Shklovsky, 726) in poetry, offering a complex perspective and idea not commonly shared. Lucille Clifton essentially creates an unfamiliar atmosphere for the reader to involve itself in, by giving it a personal and intimate perspective. The reader is let into the author’s imagination and subconscious and is forced to look closely at the text to become self-aware of the choices being made. Defamiliarization is the main element of the poem, as it is the technique used to give meaning and offer the reader a new, and refreshing perspective aside from automatism of perception and fallacies of poetry. The awareness of language is further encouraged through the use of symbolism, analogies, repetition, tone, and personification, among other stylistic devices. Through the formalist criticism point of view, Clifton essentially forces the reader to get involved in an interpersonal way, since it mainly draws its conclusions and interpretations from an exclusive focus of the work itself.