Victor Shklovsky: ‘Art as Technique’

Abstract

‘Art is thinking in images.’ This maxim, which even high-school students parrot, is nevertheless the starting point for the erudite philologist who is beginning to put together some kind of systematic literary theory. The idea, originated in part by Potebnya, has spread. ‘Without imagery there is no art, and in particular no poetry’, Potebnya writes. And elsewhere, ‘Poetry, as well as prose, is first and foremost a special way of thinking and knowing’.¹…