“Rhythm, Tempo, and Synesthesia in Literary Text” — the fifth session of the course Theory and Practice of Experimental Writing. Block II

“Rhythm, Tempo, and Synesthesia in Literary Text” — the fifth session of the course
Theory and Practice of Experimental Writing. Block II

This time, we invite course participants to reflect on the aesthetic function of literature. We will explore how sound, smell, touch, color, and other sensory registers—essential for creating a text’s inner space—can be conveyed not only through description, but also through rhythm, systems of imagery and motifs, defamiliarization, and other literary devices.

As theoretical material, we will examine a fragment from Viktor Shklovsky’s On the Theory of Prose and discuss how imagery, language, and chosen form influence a literary work. For illustrative purposes, we will look at how D. H. Lawrence and Nathalie Sarraute worked with synesthesia and defamiliarization.
The practical task will be to write a short text that engages multiple artistic and sensory registers.