Theory of Prose by Viktor Shklovsky
Published 1925 · 60,000 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Theory of Prose to read?
Theory of Prose scores 63 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 65 out of 100
- Introduces formalist vocabulary (device, motivation, defamiliarization) but in a concrete and often playful register.
- Sentence structure: 58 out of 100
- Abstraction: 78 out of 100
- Theoretical claims about perception and literary device are abstract but always demonstrated through concrete textual analysis.
- Information density: 74 out of 100
- Each essay advances one or two major claims through sustained analysis.
- Narrative indirection: 18 out of 100
- Shklovsky's argument often proceeds by demonstrating the device it is analyzing.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- Formal and analytic throughout; interested in devices rather than symbols.
- Ironic distance: 16 out of 100
- Shklovsky's prose has a self-aware performative quality; he is aware of the irony of analyzing defamiliarization in familiarized critical prose.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Formalist claims are stated and demonstrated; the essays are polemically confident.
- Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
- Essay collection with a consistent formalist framework applied to different texts and genres.
How Theory of Prose is regarded
Theory of Prose holds a literary regard score of 48 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.