ABSTRACT
I was referring to a production detail when Tretyakov corrected me, remarking: ‘Yes, that is an estrangement [Verfremdung]’ and looked conspiratorially at Brecht. Brecht nodded. That was the first time I had met the expression Verfremdung. I must assume therefore that Tretyakov provided Brecht with the term. I think that Tretyakov had reshaped the term originally formulated by Shklovsky, ostranenie, ‘distancing,’ ‘alienation.’
