Welcome to Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art,

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2014, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (5): 129-136.

• Studies in Western Literary Theory • Previous Articles     Next Articles

On the Temporality in Shklovsky's Literary Thoughts

Liu Yanshun   

  1. the School of Humanities, Zhejiang Normal University (Jinhua 321004, China)
  • Online:2014-09-25 Published:2014-10-09
  • About author:Liu Yanshun, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Humanities, Zhejiang Normal University (Jinhua 321004, China) with research interests in literary theory, aesthetics and phenomenological aesthetics.

Abstract: Shklovsky maintained that literary works are for the high-quality reading pleasure, which is embodied in the moving and spontaneous time-course. He then started with the effect of reading on the automation and the breaking of "attention," trying to distinguish between literary language, everyday language and scientific language, and proclaimed that the pleasure of reading literary works is intuitive and fresh. When reading literary language, the pleasure of reading was not only strengthened in intensity but also prolonged in duration, and reading experience was understood as a process of the internal time consciousness. In his later years, he proposed the mobile state of the existence of the meaning of literary works, which was among the first to counter the overemphasis on the form of literary works among structuralists including Jakobson.

Key words: Viktor Shklovsky, temporality, the consciousness of internal time, defamiliarization