The Shklovsky's Defamiliarization and Jakobson's Focus of the Poem “Litany of the Little Bourgeois”

The poem “Litany of the Little Bourgeois” is defamilarized by being unconventional in its structure and style. It does not follow the traditional form of writing a poem. The stanzas of the poem has its irregular number of poetic lines. Stanzas like the third compose only of one (1) line; and other stanzas like the fifth compose up to eight (8) lines. Because of its irregularities, it loses its rhythmic element. Rhyme, as one element of a traditional poem is not applied on the poem also.

            Aside from doing away with rhyme and rhythm, it uses the defamiliarization technique by the constant repetition of the phrase “swallow a lot of saliva”.

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            On a shallow reading or interpretation of the text, one can say that it is like a list of do's and don'ts on how to become a bourgeois. But a critical interpretation of the whole poem would mean otherwise – meaning, the message of the poem evokes sarcasm.

            According to Jakobson any message of a literary work have a corresponding function. In the poem “Litany of the Little Bourgeois” as an example, its focus is on the addresser. Therefore, the message of the poem has its emotive function because it predominantly focuses on what feelings or emotions the message of the poem evokes. On the abovementioned literary piece it draws out and gives emphasis on the speaker's dislike of the bourgeois 'ways' by applying irony in the poem.