Art as Technique

"Art as Technique"

by: Viktor Shklovsky


"Art is thinking in images." … The idea, originated in part by Potebnya [leading figure in the Russian Symbolist school of poets and critics], has spread. "Without imagery there is no art, and in particular no poetry," Potebnya writes [in 1905]. And elsewhere, "Poetry, as well as prose, is first and foremost a special way of thinking and knowing."

Poetry is a special way of thinking; it is, precisely, a way of thinking in images, a way which permits what is generally called 'economy of mental effort,' a way which makes for a 'sensation of the relative ease of the process.' Aesthetic feeling is the reaction to this economy. …Potebnya and his numerous disciples consider poetry a special kind of thinking - thinking by means of images; they feel that the purpose of imagery is to help channel various objects and activities into groups and to clarify the unknown by means of the known. Or, as Potebnya wrote:

Since the purpose of imagery is to remind us, by approximation, of those meanings for which the image stands, and since, apart from this, imagery is unnecessary for thought, we must be more familiar with the image than with what it clarifies.

..."Without imagery there is no art" - "Art is thinking in images." These maxims have led to far-fetched interpretations of individual works of art. Attempts have been made to evaluate even music, architecture, and lyric poetry as imagistic thought. After a quarter of a century of such attempts Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky finally had to assign lyric poetry, architecture, and music to a special category of imageless art and to define them as lyric arts appealing directly to the emotions. And thus he admitted an enormous area of art which is not a mode of thought. A part of this area, lyric poetry (narrowly considered), is quite like the visual arts; it is also verbal. But, much more important, visual art passes quite imperceptibly into nonvisual art; yet our perceptions of both are similar.

…Many still believe, then, that thinking in images - thinking in specific scenes of "roads and landscape" and furrows and boundaries" [the reference is to a major work of Symbolist theory, by the critic V. Ivanov] - is the chief characteristic of poetry. Consequently, they should have expected the history of "imagistic art," as they call it, to consist of a history of changes in imagery. But we find that images change little; from century to century, from nation to nation, from poet to poet, they flow on without changing. Images belong to no one; they are "the Lord's." The more you understand an age, the more convinced you become that the images a given poet used and which you though his own were taken almost unchanged from another poet. The works of poets are classified or grouped according to the new techniques that poets discover and share, and according to their arrangement and development of the resources of language; poets are much more concerned with arranging images than with creating them. Images are given to poets; the ability to remember them is far more important than the ability to create them.

…Poetic imagery is a means of creating the strongest possible impression…

The law of the economy of creative effort is also generally accepted. [The British philosopher Herbert] Spencer wrote:

On seeking for some clue to the law underlying these current maxims, we may see shadowed forth in many of them, the importance of economizing the reader'' or the hearer'' attention. To so present ideas that they may be apprehended with the least possible mental effort, is the desideratum towards which most of the rules above quoted point. . . . Hence, carrying out the metaphor that language is the vehicle of thought, there seems reason to think that in all cases the friction and inertia of the vehicle deduct from its efficiency; and that in composition, the chief, if not the sole thing to be done, is to reduce this friction and inertia to the smallest possible amount. [1882]

These ideas about the economy of energy, as well as about the law and aim of creativity, are perhaps true in their application to 'practical' language: they were, however, extended to poetic language. Hence they do not distinguish properly between the laws of practical language and the laws of poetic language. The fact that Japanese poetry has sounds not found in conversational Japanese was hardly the first factual indication of the differences between poetic and everyday language. Leo Jakubinsky has observed that the law of the dissimulation of liquid sounds does not apply to poetic language. This suggested to him that poetic language tolerated the admission of hard-to-pronounce conglomerations of similar sounds. …

…If we start to examine the general laws of perception, we see that as perception becomes habitual, it becomes automatic. Thus, for example, all of our habits retreat into the area of the unconsciously automatic; if one remembers the sensations of holding a pen or of speaking in a foreign language for the first time and compares that with his feeling at performing the action for the ten thousandth time, he will agree with us. Such habituation explains the principles by which, in ordinary speech, we leave phrases unfinished and words half expressed. In this process, ideally realized in algebra, things are replaced by symbols. Complex words are not expressed in rapid speech; their initial sounds are barely perceived. …

This characteristic of thought not only suggests the method of algebra, but even prompts the choice of symbols (letters, especially initial letters). By this 'algebraic' method of thought we apprehend objects only as shapes with imprecise extensions; we do not see them in their entirety but rather recognize them by their main characteristics. We see the object as though it were enveloped in a sack. We know what it is by its configuration, but we see only its silhouette. The object, perceived thus in the manner of prose perception, fades and does not leave even a first impression; ultimately even the essence of what it was is forgotten. Such perception explains why we fail to hear the prose word in its entirety (see Leo Jakubinsky's article) and, hence, why (along with other slips of the tongue) we fail to pronounce it. The process of 'algebrization,' the over-automatization of an object, permits the greatest economy of perceptive effort. Either objects are assigned only one proper feature - a number, for example - or else they function as though by formula and do not even appear in cognition.

I was cleaning a room and, meandering about, approached the divan and couldn't remember whether or not I had dusted it. Since these movements are habitual and unconscious, I could not remember and felt that it was impossible to remember - so that if I had dusted it and forgot - that is, had acted unconsciously, then it was the same as if I had not. If some conscious person had been watching, then the fact could be established. If, however, no one was looking, or looking on unconsciously, if the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been. [Leo Tolstoy's Diary, 1897]

And so life is reckoned as nothing. Habitualization devours works, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war. "If the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been." And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object: the object is not important. [This key statement has been translated different ways; Robert Scholes, for instance, renders it as: In art, it is our experience of the process of construction that counts, not the finished product.]

…After 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 - hence, we cannot say anything significant about it. Art removes objects from the automatism of perception in several ways. Here I want to illustrate a way used repeatedly by Leo Tolstoy, that writer who, for Merezhkovsky at least, seems to present things as if he himself say them, and saw them in their entirety, and did not alter them.

Tolstoy makes the familiar seem strange by not naming the familiar object. He describes an object as if he were seeing it for the first time, an event as if it were happening for the first time. In describing something he avoids the accepted names of its parts and instead names corresponding parts of other objects. For example, in "Shame" Tolstoy 'defamiliarizes' the idea of flogging in this way: "to strip people who have broken the law, to hurl them to the floor, and to rap on their bottoms with switches," and, after a few lines, "to lash about on the naked buttocks." Then he remarks:

Just why precisely this stupid, savage means of causing pain and not any other - why not prick the shoulders or any part of the body with needles, squeeze the hands or the feet in a vise, or anything like that?

I apologize for this harsh example, but it is typical of Tolstoy's way of pricking the conscience. The familiar act of flogging is made unfamiliar both by the description and by the proposal to change its form without changing its nature. Tolstoy uses this technique of 'defamiliarization' constantly. …

In War and Peace Tolstoy uses the same technique in describing whole battles as if battles were something new. These descriptions are too long to quote; it would be necessary to extract a considerable part of the four-volume novel. but Tolstoy uses the same method in describing the drawing room and the theater:

The middle of the stage consisted of flat boards; by the sides stood painted pictures representing trees, and at the back a linen cloth was stretched down to the floor boards. Maidens in red bodices and white skirts sat on the middle of the stage. One, very fat, in a white silk dress, sat apart on a narrow bench to which a green pasteboard box was glued from behind. They were all singing something. When they had finished, the maiden in white approached the prompter's box. A man in silk with tight-fitting pants on his fat legs approached her with a plume and began to sing and spread his arms in dismay. The man in the tight pants finished his song alone; they the girl sang. After that both remained silent as the music resounded; and the man, obviously waiting to begin singing his part with her again, began to run his fingers over the hand of the girl in the white dress. They finished their song together, and everyone in the theater began to clap and shout. But the men and women on stage, who represented lovers, started to bow, smiling and raising their hands.

The purpose of imagery in erotic art can be studied even more accurately; an erotic object is usually presented as if it were seen for the first time. Gogol, in "Christmas Eve," provides the following example:

Here he approached her more closely, coughed, smiled at her, touched her plump, bare arm with his fingers, and expressed himself in a way that showed both his cunning and his conceit.

"And what is this you have, magnificent Solokha?" and having said this, he jumped back a little.

"What? An arm, Osip Nikiforovich!" she answered.

"Hmmm, an arm! He, he, he!" said the secretary cordially, satisfied with his beginning. He wandered about the room.

"And what is this you have, dearest Solokha?" he said in the same way, having approached her again and grasped her lightly by the neck, and in the very same way he jumped back.

"As if you don't see, Osip Nikiforovich!" answered Solokha, "a neck, and on my neck a necklace!"

"Hmm! On the neck a necklace! He, he, he!" and the secretary again wandered about the room, rubbing his hands.

"And what is this you have, incomparable Solokha?" . . . It is not known to what the secretary would stretch his long fingers now.

…In studying poetic speech in its phonetic and lexical structure as well as in its characteristic distribution of words and in the characteristic thought structures compounded from the words, we find everywhere the artistic trademark - that is, we find material obviously created to remove the automatism of perception; the author's purpose is to create the vision which results from that deautomatized perception. A work is created 'artistically' so that its perception is impeded and the greatest possible effect is produced through the slowness of the perception. As a result of this lingering, the object is perceived not in its extension in space, but, so to speak, in its continuity. Thus "poetic language" gives satisfaction. According to Aristotle, poetic language must appear strange and wonderful; and, in fact, it is often called foreign…

…Nevertheless, the position of those who urge the idea of the economy of artistic energy as something which exists in and even distinguishes poetic language seems, at first glance, tenable for the problem of rhythm. Spencer's description of rhythm would seem to be absolutely incontestable:

Just as the body in receiving a series of varying concussions, must keep the muscles ready to meet the most violent of them, as not knowing when such may come: so, the mind in receiving unarranged articulations, must keep its perspectives active enough to recognize the least easily caught sounds. And as, if the concussions recur in definite order, the body may husband its forces by adjusting the resistance needful for each concussion; so, if the syllables by rhythmically arranged, the mind may economize its energies by anticipating the attention required for each syllable.

This apparently conclusive observation suffers from the common fallacy, the confusion of the laws of poetic and prosaic language. In The philosophy of Style Spencer failed utterly to distinguish between them. But rhythm may have two functions. The rhythm of prose, or of a work song like "Dubinushka," permits the members of the work crew to do their necessary "groaning together" and also eases the work by making it automatic. And, in fact, it is easier to march with music than without it, and to march during an animated conversation is even easier, for the walking is done unconsciously. Thus the rhythm of prose is an important automatizing element: the rhythm of poetry is not. There is 'order' in art, yet not a single column of a Greek temple stands exactly in its proper order; poetic rhythm is similarly disordered rhythm. Attempts to systematize the irregularities have been made, and such attempts are part of the current problem in the theory of rhythm. It is obvious that the systematization will not work, for unreality the problem is not of complicating the rhythm but of disordering the rhythm - a disordering which cannot be predicted. Should the disordering of rhythm become a convention, it would be ineffective as a device for the roughening of language. But I will not discuss rhythm in more detail since I intend to write a book about it. [Evidently, this intention was never fulfilled.]

Journal Checklist

English 396
Prof. Becky Bikowski
Section 002
Journal Checklist

Exercise 1.4
Exercise 1.5
Memoir exercise 1.7
Exercise 1.1
Exercise 2.2
A short dramatic monologue in the voice of someone from your family.
Character Sketch
Set Design
Character Exercise (any from Chapter)
Setting Exercise (any from Chapter)
Poetry exercise (any from Chapter)
Ear Game
Embarrassment Game
Narrative Poetry Questions


Portfolio Checklist:

Observation
Drafts and Revision of Persona Poem
Drafts and Revision of Poem for Workshop
Narrative Poem
Parody/ Imitation Poem
Collage Poem

Narrative Poetry Handout

Narrative Poetry

What is narrative poetry? Narrative Poetry is a poem that tells a series of events using poetic devices such as rhythm, rhyme, compact language, and attention to sound. In other words, a narrative poem tells a story, but it does it with poetic flair! Many of the same elements that are found in a short story are also found in a narrative poem. Here are some elements of narrative poetry that are important:
o character
o setting
o conflict
o plot

Read these examples:

“Night Highway 99,” Gary Snider (Handout); "Out Out" Frost; "Song," Kelly (Handout)

Choose one of the poems and answer the following (in your journal):
Who are the characters in the poem?
What do you know about the speaker in the poem?
What character traits does each of the characters have? What evidence in the poem shows this?
What is the setting of the poem? (time and place)
What types of conflicts occur in the poem? (hint: there is more than one)
What is the mood of the poem?
Draw a small plot line. Tell what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the poem.


Writing narrative poetry
When writing narrative poetry a good place to start is with your own life’s experiences. Choose experiences that can be captured in a snapshot. Do you have a favorite photograph of you playing baseball when you were 6 years old? Or, how about the funny picture on your first birthday with you face full of cake? Maybe you can remember funny moment from a special vacation, or a moment with a grandparent that is very memorable. Remember, these are moment in time—not the whole event. A poem (unless you are writing an epic poem) captures snapshots, not 5 hour academy award winning movies!

Brainstorm 5 different “snapshot” experiences that you may be able to write a narrative poem about.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Next, gather sensory details about that experience. The best way I have found to do this is through clustering idea. Remember that not ALL the ideas need to be used in your poem, but don’t leave hole in the poem that would prevent a reader from connecting to your poem.
Now that you have your images, choose character for your poem. What is he or she like? Who will be the speaker of the poem?
The next step, just like in when writing a short story is to determine the conflict. What are the inner and outer conflicts in the even that you have chosen? How is the conflict resolved?
To identify plot in you poem create your own plot line below.
Now, craft the lines of your poem. If it doesn’t come together in the first draft, that’s okay. Narrative poetry always takes a couple of drafts to get the spirit of the poem down on the page. Remember to include a title that adds to the meaning of your poem. (A revised draft of this assignment should appear in your portfolio when I collect it on 3/3).

Syllabus Part 2

English 396
Section 002
Professor Bikowski
Syllabus Part 2

Week 4

2/11: Revision and Introduction to Poetry

Due: Setting Revision
One Art discussion
Workshop Dates
What is Poetry?
A Certain Lady
Line Breaks

Handouts: “Night Highway 99,” Gary Snider; “Song” Kelly; “Out, Out,” Frost; Figures of Speech; The Embarrassment Game

Homework:
Read: Burroway, “Poetry” (307-322); and read the handouts I gave you in class (Read the poems at least two or three times each!)

Journal: Exercise 9.7 p323 and The Embarrassment Game

Also: Figures of Speech handout

DUE NEXT CLASS: Group ONE 23 copies of poem for workshop

2/13: No Class

Due by Friday: Group one (Anthony, Matt, Lauren, Aubry) send out poems for workshop in email.

Homework:
Read: "Poetry" chapter in Burroway; Peer Work Group One; Poem handouts (3 times each)

Journal: Narrative Poetry Handout; The Ear Game

Write to hand in: (Typed) 200 words of commentary for group ONE poems. Bring a copy to give to the poet AND a copy to hand in to me.

DUE NEXT CLASS: Group TWO 23 copies of poem for workshop

Week 5

2/18: Workshop Group One

Handout: Imitation and Parody

DUE TODAY: Group TWO 23 copies

Homework:
Read: Peer Work Group Two

Journal: Imitation or Parody Poem

Write to hand in: (Typed) 200 words of commentary for group TWO poems. Bring a copy to give to the poet AND a copy to hand in to me.

DUE NEXT CLASS: Group THREE 23 copies of poem for workshop


2/20: Workshop Group Two

Handout: Poems; Collage Game

DUE TODAY: Group THREE 23 copies

Homework:
Read: "The Ruined World"; Peer Work Group Three

Journal: The Collage Game

Write to hand in: (Typed) 200 words of commentary for group three poems. Bring a copy to give to the poet AND a copy to hand in to me.

DUE NEXT CLASS: Group FOUR 23 copies of poem for workshop

Week 6

2/25: Workshop Group Three

DUE TODAY: Group FOUR 23 copies

Homework:
Read: Peer Work Group Four

Journal: Hand in next class!

Write to hand in: (Typed) 200 words of commentary for group four poems. Bring a copy to give to the poet AND a copy to hand in to me.

DUE NEXT CLASS: Group FIVE 23 copies of poem for workshop; Also, anyone who wants to have the class workshop a revision of a poem that you have already had workshopped, turn in 23 copies by Monday


2/27: Workshop Group Four

DUE TODAY: Group FIVE 23 copies and anyone who wants to have the class workshop a revision of a poem.

Homework:
Read: Peer Work Group Five and revisions

Write to hand in: (Typed) 200 words of commentary for group four poems. Bring a copy to give to the poet AND a copy to hand in to me.

Week 7

3/3: Due: Poetry Portfolio AND Journal

Write and Recite your memorized poems for the class!!

Homework:
Read: Burroway, “Story,” p163-172 and “Creative Non-Fiction,” p237-248; Handout

Journal: Write a list of ideas for a creative non-fiction piece. For each idea, come up with a potential title (ex. 7.2 p240); and p 242, ex 7.5.

3/5: Intro to Creative Non-Fiction

Reading assignment for Monday

Copies should be in my box.

Homework:

Read: Burroway, “Invitation to the Writer” (pp. xxi-xxviii); “Image” (pp. 3-13); Introduction to Bird By Bird, Lamott.

Journal: Complete both the short poetry exercise on p. 14 (a programmed imagery poem) and the memoir exercise on p. 26

Write to Turn In: (Typed 1-2 pg double spaced) Observation describe sitting in one place for thirty minutes using ALL FIVE SENSES. Be as specific as you can with your details.

Bring to next class: an image (can be from anywhere, a magazine, the internet, a photograph) that sparks your imagination and compels you to think and make up a story or character from it.