Verfremdungseffekt

Verfremdungseffekt, also V-Effekt, a term deriving from Russian Formalism (ostranenie) and associated with the epic theatre (see Episches Theater) of B. Brecht. The technique of Verfremdung aims at giving to familiar aspects of reality the appearance of being unfamiliar in order to arouse the spectator's critical judgement. It is used in the socialist theatre of Brecht, who adopted the term in order to dissociate himself from traditional German and Chinese models employing similar techniques for different ends, as well as from Aristotelian drama as he saw it.

An idiosyncratic terminology aids the V-effect, notably the use of Stückeschreiber (cf. Lied des Stücke-schreibers), ‘Thaeter’ for theatre (Theater), and ‘Misuk’ for music (Musik), the latter being Brecht's signature tune for his criticism of traditional opera and especially Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk, and for his own brand of songs. Brecht frequently commented on the function of the V-effect in his theoretical writings (e.g. § 42 of Kleines Organon für das Theater: ‘Eine verfremdende Abbildung ist eine solche, die den Gegenstand zwar erkennen, ihn aber doch zugleich fremd erscheinen läßt’). He saw in Surrealism a ‘primitive’ (because nonpolitical) forerunner since it produces disillusionment by means of shock-effect, and linked his own Verfremdungseffekt with the principle of revolution: ‘Die echten V-Effekte haben kämpferischen Charakter’ (Nachträge zum ‘Kleinen Organon’, 1964).