The metaphor of the Uncanny as a psychic and literary experience

Abstract

The discussion below proposes a study of the space shared by the disciplines of literature and psychoanalysis via a dialogue between definitive cultural texts, and through examination of their transforming influence. At the centre of the discussion is Freud's 1919 essay, The Uncanny, which serves as the source of inspiration for a metaphorical reading and experiential collaboration. Understanding Freud's unique linguistic phrasings as metaphorical expression facilitates its use in shaping both a concrete and a symbolic world of content that impacts creative meaning of a revealing and enabling nature. This essay examines metaphor's modes of interpretive operation through a reading of the texts of the poet Yona Wallach (1944–1985), recognized for her profound awareness of language and its power and for her meta-poetic preoccupation with speech and language. The unique aesthetic object selected for discussion here is an example of the movement that occurs during the reading process, and the creative potential of interaction between texts which are the subject of interpretation and which, at the same time, participate in the interpretive process and influence it.