The uncanny is something that seems familiar, but its familiarity is
unsettling, troubling, and frightening. The German word for uncanny,
unheimlich, means
un-home-y. As Freud notes, the English term canny
also denotes cosiness (home/familiar), and a second (supernatural)
sense (225).
So the uncanny is something that reminds the viewer of something
familiar, and yet is strange. Freud says this familiarity stems from
repressed emotions in the unconscious, and the fear that such
traumas might reoccur (241, 246). Elements include:
- doubles, repetition (Freud 234)
- robots, automatons
- a focus on the eyes
- a feeling of creepiness brought about by seeing someone's likeness
Who is uncanny?
A Doppelgänger (look
alike, body double, or literally double walker) might have an
uncanny similarity to someone.
Robots and avatars have an uncanny resemblance to humans, a
phenomenon known as the uncanny
valley.
Where do we find the
uncanny?
The uncanny often appears in science fiction and fantasy.
Television and film that have uncanny figures include:
Bizarro in Superman
Evil Vampire Willow in the "Doppelgängland"
(1999) episode of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer
Many characters in movies inspired by the writings of P. K.
Dick, including Blade Runner (1982)
and Total Recall (1990)
When do we feel the uncanny?
- When we see these doubles.
- "when the distinction between imagination and reality is
effaced, as when something that we have hitherto regarded as
imaginary appears before us in reality, or when a symbol takes
over the full functions of the thing it symbolizes, and so on . .
. The infantile element in this, which also dominates the minds of
neurotics, is the over-accentuation of psychical reality in
comparisons with material reality" (Freud 244).
Why are they uncanny?
They may look the same, but one individual embodies the
ostensibly good side, and the other being embodies all that is
morally abhorrent (evil).
"The 'double' has become a thing of terror, just as,
after the collapse of their religion, the gods turned into
demons" (Freud 236).
Why is the uncanny
important?
- Doubling is an important motif in literature. The uncanny
offers a way to understand the splitting of characters in
literature, and a way to frame what they might say about
psychological issues. Consider, for example, Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. Although they do
not resemble each other physically, one is the "bad" wife, and the
other is the "good" wife. In some ways, however, Mason represents
many of the fears of abandonment and anger against Mr. Rochester
that Eyre does not verbalize in her conscious state (but may
harbor unconsciously).
For Freud, the quintessential uncanny text is Hoffmann'sThe Sandman (1818):
"For the conclusion of the story makes it quite clear
that Coppola the optician really is the lawyer Coppelius and
also, therefore, the Sand-man" (Freud 230).
"In the story of Nathaniel's childhood, the figures of
his father and Coppelius represent the two opposites into
which the father-imago is split by his ambivalence; where the
one threatens to blind him--that is, to castrate him--, the
other, the 'good' father, and Coppelius is made answerable for
it" (Freud 232 fn.).
Hoffmann's traumatic event was the loss of a father, and
abandonment: "Hoffman was the child of an unhappy marriage.
When he was three years old, his father left his small family,
and was never united with them again" (232-33 fn.)
Ernst Theodor
Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822)
- Born 1776 in Königsberg (once capital
of east Prussia, annexed after WWII by Russians and renamed Kaliningrad,
birthplace also of the German philosopher Kant)
- Government official, musician, illustrator,
writer, and drinker
- Father was a lawyer and he became one too for
a time
- Got syphilis from his lover
- Worked in the theater (composing music,
operas) and wrote novellas
1813: Changed his second middle name, William, to Amadeus in
honor of Mozart
1816: Nutcracker and Mouse
King (later adapted for the ballet, Nutcracker)
1817: The Sandman
published as part of Night
Pieces (Nachtstücke)
1822: Died from a paralytic disease
Vocabulary & References
die Aufklärung (German) = Enlightenment
automaton = mechanized doll, 19th-c. word for robot, android
Franz Moor (288): is the villain of Friedrich Schiller's play,
The Robbers (1781/82),
which shocked audiences with its emotional language and
revolutionary undertones. He arranges for his brother, Karl, to be
disinherited, and Karl becomes a robber. Daniel is an old servant
in the play.
the town of "G--" (290) that Nathanael studies at may
well be Göttingen,
a university well known for physics
Party Game: Ask yes or no questions
about your identity. Am I a man? Am I alive? Do I work for a
living? After you've guessed your identity, sit down &
write a 3-4 sent. summary of your character's whereabouts,
job, the significance of their name (or lack of one), &
how he or she knows Nathanael.
Coppelius
Giuseppe Coppola
Klara
Lothar
the narrative voice (288)
Nathanael / Thanael
Nathanael's father
Nathanael's mother
Nathanael's nurse
Olympia
the Sandman
Siegmund
Spalanzani
Works Cited
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre.
London: Smith, Elder, and Cornhill, 1847.
Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." The
Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud.
Trans. James Strachey. Vol. XVII. London: Hogarth, 1953. 219-252.
Print
"E. T. A. Hoffmann." Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature.
2005.
<http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.montclair.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=17262020&site=lrc-live>
Accessed
April 2010. Web.
Hoffmann, E. T. A. "The Sandman." Tales. Trans. L. J. Kent and E. C.
Knight. NY: Contiuum, 1982. 277-308.
"The Uncanny and Sandman." W. C. Nielsen April 2010
