The Defamiliarization of Death in Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”

Abstract

The Russian literary theorist Viktor Shklovsky is responsible for coining the term “defamiliarization,” which describes art’s ability to reawaken our senses by making the familiar unfamiliar. In his story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” Hemingway uses Harry’s weakening grasp on reality to defamiliarize his experience of his looming death. This essay analyzes Hemingway’s attempt to incorporate familiar objects in new and unfamiliar ways to convey Harry’s gradual demise.