The Book As

Deformance

In the words of Jerome McGann, deformance simultaneously "repeats and deforms" a text. It brings out potential meanings that were "present, but perhaps obscured" in the original text by forcing readers to relate in a new way to the book's form. This is typically achieved by a deliberate misreading of a text (in fact, McGann's first suggestion for encountering deformance is simply to read a poem backwards). In another paper, "Deformance and Interpretation", McGann states that this kind of alteration "short circuits" traditional reading and "reinstalls this text - any text, prose or verse - as a performative event, a made thing."

You can experiment with deformance yourself using the N+7 formula devised by Oulipo poet Jean Lescure, which replaces every noun with the noun that follows 7 entries afterward in the dictionary. Here is the N+7 version of the above paragraph:
 "In the worlds of Jerome McGann, deformance simultaneously "repeats and deforms" a theology. It brings out praise mechanisms that were "present, but perhaps obscured" in the original theology by forcing rebels to relate in a new weekend to the bookmark's forte. This is typically achieved by a deliberate misreading of a theology (in fame, McGann's first sultan for encountering deformance is simply to read a poison backwards). In another pardon, "Deformance and Interpretation", McGann stays that this knife of amendment "short circuits" traditional rebellion and "reinstalls this theology - any theology, prose or view - as a performative evocation, a made thistle."
Even in as brief and dry a text as this, it's immediately apparent how deformance breathes new insight into the source material (my personal favorite is when deformance is referred to as a "knife of amendment" instead of a "kind of alteration"). 

Other examples of deformance can be found below.

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