ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture: The Grotesque

The Uncanny ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture: The Grotesque

The Uncanny • Sigmund Freud • The concept of the Uncanny was later elaborated on and developed by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay The Uncanny, which also draws on the work of Hoffmann (whom Freud refers to as the "unrivalled master of the uncanny in literature"). However, he criticizes Jentsch's belief that Olympia is the central uncanny element in the story: • I cannot think — and I hope most readers of the story will agree with me — that the theme of the doll Olympia, who is to all appearances a living being, is by any means the only, or indeed the most important, element that must be held responsible for the quite unparalleled atmosphere of uncanniness evoked by the story.Instead, Freud draws on a wholly different element of the story, namely, "the idea of being robbed of one's eyes," as the "more striking instance of uncanniness" in the tale. ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture: The Grotesque

The Uncanny Sigmund Freud Freud goes on, for the remainder of the essay, to identify uncanny effects that result from instances of "repetition of the same thing," including incidents wherein one becomes lost and accidentally retraces one's steps, and instances wherein random numbers recur, seemingly meaningfully (here Freud may be said to be prefiguring the concept that Jung would later refer to as synchronicity). He also discusses the uncanny nature of Otto Rank's concept of the "double." ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture: The Grotesque

ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture: The Grotesque The Uncanny

Watch “The Empty Child” Clips on the Grotesque Blog The Uncanny ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture: The Grotesque

ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture: The Grotesque