Disruption of illusion

Explanation

Disruption here means a perceptible interruption of a familiar representational or illusion-building pattern. In the context of estrangement, the question is what previously seemed self-evident and how a device makes it appear constructed or open to alternatives. A text may, for example, thematize its own construction. This is one possible form of disruption, not a definition of every estrangement technique. Nor does a self-reflexive sentence necessarily produce emotional distance. Analysis must specify the interrupted pattern, the device used and the proposed effect separately.

Movement of thought

1. Identify the expectation initially established. 2. Locate the intervention in the representation. 3. Name the pattern affected. 4. Separate textual observation from claims about response.

Example

Constructed: After a suspenseful escape scene, the narrator says, “I could have saved him here; I chose a different ending.” The narrative draws attention to its construction.

Counter-test

An unexpected plot outcome alone does not disclose the constructedness of a representation. Optical refraction is not the sense intended here.

Scientific use case

A comparative reading could examine when comments concern narrative technique and when they explicitly concern fictional status.

Effect

The interruption can invite reconsideration of habitual perception; it does not prove actual audience distance or insight.

Resonance

A surface acquires a fold, and its previously hidden construction comes into view.

Distinction

Distinguish this context-specific description from irony, metafiction and any particular programme of estrangement.

Sources

• Neumann & Nünning, Metanarration and Metafiction

  Definition and explication, lines45–55

  documented-source-register