When a person experiences chills or goose bumps as a reaction to something strange or unusual, they are being affected by a sense of uncanniness. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud endeavored to explain this feeling of uncanniness in his essay entitled “The Uncanny”. Freud’s theory focuses around two different causes for this reaction. Freud attributes the feeling of uncanniness to repressed infantile complexes that have been revived by some impression, or when primitive beliefs that have been surmounted seem once more to be confirmed. The first point of his theory that Freud discusses in the essay is the repression of infantile complexes that cause an uncanny experience. Freud uses E.T.A. Hoffman’s short story, “The Sandman”, to explain the idea of repression of infantile complexes. The story centers around the character of the Sandman, who steals the eyes of children. Freud states that the fear that the character Nathaniel feels towards the Sandman has more to due with an infantile castration complex than with the actual fear of losing his eyes. In Freud’s theory he states that the “Study of dreams, phantasies and myths has taught us that a morbid anxiety connected with the eyes and with going blind is often enough a substitute for the dread of castration”(Freud 383). If Freud’s belief is true, than it is Nathaniel’s fear of castration that causes him in the end to go mad and throw himself from parapet. Nathaniel’s fear is embodied in the character of the Sandman, whom Freud says represents Nathaniel’s father, and thus is the cause of his fear of castration. The Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex would also be affected by Freud’s theory. When examining Oed... ... middle of paper ... ...s the knowledge of something in the recesses of our memory that is unattainable in any definite sense. Freud does indeed succeed in explaining two very important causes of uncanniness, and they are easily identified in literature and in society. Freud believes that uncanniness is a result of repressed infantile complexes and also the confirmation of primitive beliefs. Freud’s observations are important because they help us better understand our reactions and our fears, which in turn help us better understand ourselves. As long as people continue to gain some sort of pleasure from enduring this sense of uncanniness, writers and film makers will continue to use Freud’s methods to bring about the uncanny. Works Cited Freud, Sigumund. "The Uncanny." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. New York: Blackwell, 1998.
The concept of the uncanny can be a difficult one to comprehend; this is why Freud begins his essay with an analysis of the different definitions of the uncanny in various languages. Ultimately Freud rests that the German terms “heimlich” and “unheimlich” best match the definition of the uncanny because it is translated as familiar and unfamiliar. The uncanny can be defined as something that creates a feeling of familiarity but also unfamiliarity, and this unfamiliarity is what is fearful to the individual. Freud’s essay “The Uncanny” can be related to the field of literary criticism because he explains how the feeling of the uncanny relates to the author’s attempt to convey a certain response from their audience. This type of analysis bridges Freud’s work and Larsen’s novel in order to re-examine and debate certain moments in Passing that after a second look can be defined as uncanny. Passing is a short novel that centers on two mixed women who reunite in their adult lives and describe how they are trying to “pass” as white to society. Clare’s motive for passing is so that she can live a luxurious life with her white husband who is extremely racist. Whereas Irene is trying to pass when she goes out in society, her husband Brian is fully aware and is a black doctor. Irene and Clare’s childhoods and pasts are vague which allows there to be room for psychoanalysis, particularly with the character Irene and her feelings towards Clare. Through psychoanalytical criticism of the uncanny moments that occur in Larsen’s novel Passing build tension between Irene and Clare and it is argued that Irene pushed Clare from the window that caused her death in order for Irene to keep her secure life with her husband.
Sigmund Freud was one of the most influential figure and authoritative thinker of the 20th century. He is the founder of the psychoanalytic theory which gained popularity among people at that time but was also subject to criticism. Although most people disagreed with Freud and his theory, some aspects of the psychoanalytic theory can be applied in our lives. Among these aspects is the castration anxiety. Castration anxiety is a boy’s fear of losing his genital. This fear occurs because the child thinks that his father will harm his genital organ as a punishment for having sexual desires for his mother. This essay will argue that castration anxiety is correlated with vision in “Leonardo da Vinci and a memory of his childhood” and in ‘The Uncanny”
Hoile, Christopher. "The Uncanny and the Fairy Tale in Kubrick's The Shining." Literature/Film Quarterly 12.1 (1984): 5-12. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski and Scott T. Darga. Vol. 112. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 Apr. 2014
Willbern, David. "Reading After Freud." Ed. G. Douglas Atkins and Laura Morrow. Contemporary Literary Theory. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. 158-179.
In Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House", there are numerous traces of the representation of the uncanny which was suggested by Sigmund Freud. In the story, the Hill House itself is an uncanny figure to the central protagonist, Eleanor, as it features as her mother which has an ambivalent nature as the meaning of the German word of `uncanny' itself. Moreover, the house also acts as a mirror reflecting her own image so that she can see herself by looking at the house, thus the house is actually an allegory of Eleanor's psychological condition and she is literally consumed by it in the end as the boundary between her and the house collapses. Besides, another protagonist, Theodora, is a double of Eleanor as she figures her opposite side which is her denied self and self-destructiveness while she also expresses the repressed feelings of Eleanor. These examples match with the concept of the uncanny which stresses on the uncanny effect of the `Doubling' and `Infantile complexes' . (Alison 32)
Fafari, Morteza. Freud's Uncanny: The Roles of the Double in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. 2010. Print. April 28, 2014
In The Sandman, the weirdness of the tale could be perceived in two directions--the first being that of intellectual uncertainty and the other is that of psychoanalytical experience and namely the ideas of Freud. In order to describe the uncanny experience in Hoffmann's The Sandman and Shelley's Frankenstein it is indispensable, however, to explain and define beforehand what is the connotation of Unheimlich. In my further analysis of the uncanny, I relate the two works and stress on the obsession of the two characters which explains the weirdness in them. Moreover, I focus on the surrounding environment in the face of the society because it is pertinent to the discussion of the weirdness. The unconsciousness is also playing a major role in the description of the uncanny. Thus we attribute the uncanny to the collapsing psychic boundaries of conscious and unconscious, self and other, living and dead, real and unreal. These recurrent themes, which trigger our most primitive desires and fears are the very hallmarks of Shelley's and Hoffmann's fiction.
The relationship between Frankenstein and his monster can be used as a metaphorical map to understanding Sigmund Freud's conception of the "super-ego," or in other words, the human sense of guilt and conscience. Frankenstein's sense of guilt develops around the violent, aggressive way he creates his monster. The monster causes the ripples of guilt to grow by causing him to fear losing his love ones, losing his source of protection, and punishment for his sins. After it is fully developed, Frankenstein's guilt and the monster's overshadowing presence serves as guides for understanding how the super-ego works to punish a soul through a constantly aggressive, nagging feeling of anxiety. Viewing Frankenstein through Freudian lenses as well is George V. Griffith a professor of English and Philosophy at Chadron College in Nebraska, he points out in his critical evaluation of the novel that "Victor and the monster are the same person" (3).
Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Julie Rivkin, and Michael Ryan, eds. Blackwell: Malden, Massachussets. 2000. 166.
As previously discussed, Miller's view of the uncanny seems to run parallel with Jentsch's notions of intellectual uncertainty, straying from Freud's various understandings of the source of the uncanny; however, had Miller utilized repetition compulsion as a main facet of his argument, his integration of Freud's variation of the uncanny would have been justified in some respect. In his essay, Freud outright states that "repetition [produces] a sense of the uncanny by reproducing a circumstance, or a feeling, that recalls the helplessness we experience…" (Freud 144). While Miller may not explicitly share Freud's psychoanalytical outlook, there is some merit to repetition's ability to produce a feeling of anxiety and helplessness in constructing
Wilson, Sarah. "Sigmund Freud and the oedipal complex." The Guardian. N.p., 8 Mar. 2009. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. .
In Hoffmann’s “The Sandman” , there is a re-occurring theme of the uncanny that is commented on by both Sigmund Freud and Ernst Jentsch, who try to explain the uncanny in different ways by highlighting events and imagery that they believe to play a key role in creating it. I however, would argue that the uncanny is a more universal theme in the story and likewise, it’s source will be much more general. In the course of this paper, I intend to prove that the source of the uncanny is the fact that the reader doubts the reality they are presented within the text in the same way that one would doubt the reality that is perceived by a schizophrenic. This is due to the fact that the narrator suffers from schizophrenia and a possible dissociative personality disorder. Furthermore, the events of the short story only occur within the twisted mind of the narrator and represent a series of psychical manifestations that were most likely imagined as a defense mechanism to deal with the traumatic loss of his father and siblings.
The thought was put forth in an article in “Energy” in 1970 by Masahiro Mori. Ernst Jentsch wrote about “the uncanny” in a 1906 essay. Sigmund Freud followed up thirteen13 years later. The idea is largely based on anecdotes and researchers like Karl MacDorman. MacDorman is working on experiments to have in on possible explanations. MacDorman briefly worked with Saygin in Japan
The aim of this essay is to clarify the basic principles of Freud’s theories and to raise the main issues.
The notion of the 'uncanny' is reoccurant in Horrors, the idea that something familiar has been altered in such an unsettling way that the audience garners discomfort. The use is particularly effective in film as the fear of the uncanny is so dissimilar to tradition notions of