Topic > Hymns and Habits: Examining Defamiliarization in Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to Intellectual Beauty"

Percy Shelley uses defamiliarization in "Ode to Intellectual Beauty" as a tool to dismantle religious belief systems. Defamiliarization is a literary technique used to make what is known and familiar appear different and new. Viktor Shklovsky argues that one's perceptions have become habitual, and it is this habitualization that prevents one from perceiving the object. Rather, people continue to unconsciously interact with life without ever actually engaging in or interacting with it. Jean Cocteau argues that one's interactions with objects prohibit the image and one no longer sees it. In “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,” Shelley strips the Spirit of the beauty of the associations people attach to it so that one can see it purely for what it is. He denounces the use of religious terms to describe the Spirit, making it unfamiliar as most people would engage with it in religious terms. “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” is an ironic twist on the traditional hymn and, instead of praising religion and God, removes the mask of habit that religion places on the Spirit of Beauty. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Defamiliarization is a literary technique that reveals the hidden beauty of things by making them unfamiliar. The technique accomplishes this by presenting the thing and making it appear strange so that the perception of it changes. The term was coined by Viktor Shklovsky, who believed that “the purpose of art is to convey the sensation of things as they are perceived, and not as they are known” (Shklovsky). The literary devices used by artists are different from everyday language, which exposes objects and presents them in a new light. In this new light, the perception of the object changes and its sensation is recovered. Shklovsky argues that “the general laws of perception [indicate that] perception becomes habitual, becomes automatic… [and] eventually even the essence of what was is forgotten.” Defamiliarization restores this essence and "removes the veil", revealing "the surprising things that surround us and that our senses usually register mechanically" (Cocteau). Perception becomes automatic when we are habitually confronted with the object, as Jean Cocteau explains: "Suddenly". , as in a flash, we see the dog, the carriage, the house for the first time. Shortly thereafter, habit erases this powerful image again. We pet the dog, we call the carriage, we live in a house we no longer see them." Cocteau argues that when one engages with objects and associates a habit with them, one stops seeing the essence of the object. Shklovsky states: "After seeing an object several times, we begin to recognize it is in front of us and we know it, but we don't see it, so we can't say anything significant about it. Once automated, the object loses its beauty and novelty and simply becomes another thing in everyday life. The perception and sensation of the object are lost. In the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, the speaker suggests that, in a sense, religion. accustoms the perception of the Spirit of Beauty. Religion is a way of engaging and rationalizing the unknown and sublime parts of life In "Hymn before Sun-rise, in the Vale of Chamouni", Coleridge attributes the sublime beauty of Mont Blanc. God and heaven, as “the Soul dilated, rapt, transfused,/In the mighty vision passing – there/As in its natural form, swollen to Heaven” (Coleridge 21-23). sublime mountains of Mont Blanc attributing them to (1917): 15-21.