Brecht’s estrangement effect interrupts spectators’ acceptance of stage actions as natural or inevitable. Familiar conduct becomes visible as historical and therefore potentially different.
Demonstrating a role, narrative interruptions, songs, or explanatory placards can contribute. No device guarantees the effect by itself; what matters is its critical relation with the audience.
The aim is not the abolition of feeling. Being moved and questioning the conditions of an action can coexist. Nor does every detached or unusual performance automatically constitute Brechtian estrangement.
Verfremdung differs from Marx’s Entfremdung. The former concerns theatrical perception and demonstration, the latter alienation in specific social relations. Similar translations should not identify their functions.