Exploring the Defamiliarization of The Thief and the Dogs Written by Naguib Mahfouz based on Formalism

Introduction: Defamiliarization or foreignization is a formalist concept that influences common and familiar scenes and presents them in new ways and different from everyday realities. According to Shklovsky, the concept implies that foreignizing whatever is familiar and habitual. Walking, for example, is a regular act but dance is changing and tangible act. We often inhale air automatically; the same is true of language, it is the middle ground in which we move. But, when the air is suddenly polluted or accompanied by dust, our attention is drawn to our breathing, and it may affect our physical life as a profound experience. Formalists believe that art changes our habits and whatever is about us and makes the strange. Art and literature are supposed to discover things for the second time. Formalists believe that art and literature should arouse astonishment and unfamiliarity in audience and make them feel a strange feeling. According to them, artists try to move things far away from their regular context and create unexpected features. Therefore, defamiliarization or foreignization seeks to break the habits, but it is based on reality. Shafiei Kadkani believes that there is no limitation for defamiliarization, and every kind of innovation in art is a sort of defamiliarization. It is worth mentioning that all tactics for making arts are universal and common among cultures and the result of human being’s creativity. Writing, especially creating novels, is among the arts that work based on defamiliarizatin. Novelists put aside familiar methods of narrating stories to present their idea in a special and personal way because that would result in innovation in writing and make the readership feel close to the writer, the exact thing that formalism emphasizes.  The novelist has the ability to present an exact image of life artistically. This happens when he uses a set of strategies such as defamiliarization or foreignization for writing a new, unfamiliar and irregular novel. He continuously tries to makes novelties even when his works are different in terms of literary type (anecdote, short story, and novel). It can be said that he stands against real perceptions, and this resistance results in new writings. Therefore, he presents a story with unusual and unfamiliar issues that seem to be the basics. The basics are in such a way that would prevent the author from going far away from the events and characters. Shkolvsky explains the theory that a bond is made between us and all the things around us, something that becomes internalized in wisdom. In this way, the things unconsciously become new, and the new idea becomes a habit. The role of literariness here is making us conscious again. This is done through what shekovsky calls it defamiliarization/foreignization, which is breaking the bonds between things and us. Shkolvsky explains the theory that a bond is made between us and all the things around us, which becomes internalized in wisdom. In this way, the things unconsciously become new and the new idea becomes a habit. The role of literariness here is making us conscious again. This is done through what Shkolvsky calls it defamiliarization/foreignization, which is breaking the bonds between things and us. Regarding the subject and using the theory as a framework, his study sought to explore the effect of defamilirazation, as a formalist technique, on the title, characters, time, events, theme, style, language of the novel ‘The Thief and the Dogs’.( اللّصّ والکلاب)
 Objective: The study aimed to explore the criticism concept of defamiliaraization and its effect on novel and literary works. Regarding the objective, the novel ‘The Thief and the Dogs’ was selected as it was identified to be an appropriate one.
Method and Results:  This is a descriptive-analytical study showing that the novel ‘The Thief and the Dogs’ is a mystery in which defamiliarization is visible and the technique makes the novel strange. The mysterious features of the novel make it strange and different from what one may encounter in daily life.
Conclusion: The followings were concluded through exploring the examples of defamiliarization in ‘The Thief and the Dogs’:
1. Defamiliarization occurs in this novel when paradox, irony and symbols become dominant. The symbols are full of ironies, and the term Kalab (thief) has two visible and hidden meanings, but the writer meant the second one which means “treacherous”. The audience understands the symbol and the breach of semantic norms that makes the text defamiliarized.
2. When looked from formalism point of view, symbols and messages that are in different aspects of Egypt community, religion and woman, make the novel defamiliarized.
3. The paradox of characters makes the readership familiar with unusual concepts.
4. Expected and unexpected events create a paradox and result in a defamiliarized language of the novel.