Uncanny Research Articles

The uncanny (Das Unheimliche): The ability to distinguish between an automaton and a human being.

The uncanny (Das Unheimliche): The ability to distinguish between an automaton and a human being.

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood, das Unheimliche and sociology: Horror literature in the dispute on what is recognized as real

<p>The article is an attempt to analyze <em>The Willows </em>by Algernon Blackwood in terms of the sociological concept of multiple realities. Trying to answer the question of how people experience reality, due attention will be paid to the literary description of the situation in which a human being is confronted with a reality that terrifies and disturbs. Literature in general, including horror literature, is treated here as an important, from the cognitive standpoint, platform for discussion about human experiences, which, following Sigmund Freud, can be described as uncanny. I treat Blackwood’s <em>The Willows </em>as a reconstruction of the dispute over the legitimacy of knowledge and the sources of cognition in the conditions of a specific epistemological (categorical) chaos in the face of experiencing the uncanny.</p>

La contingenza della norma: il monstrum.


 
 
 What does it really mean to contemplate the “anomalous”, the “malformed”, the “anatomical- monster”? Why and how is it so disturbing? And what is the proper norm and status of the monster? The monster is what shocks, the weird, the eerie. The monster is the uncanny, the “unhomely”, das Unheimliche, to borrow from Freud’s famous expression. It’s the irruption of the improper that threatens the stability of life, as it indicates how the commonness of life itself is a precarious yet contingent state. The monster upsets us because it shows us the contingency of the norm. Based upon this assumption, we shall also touch upon other concepts. These might be: the transvaluation of values, the Einverleibung, the Great Health and the theory of the hopeful monster. It is, in the end, a new form of the same: the individual subtracts itself, therefore, from the individuality of the species, but it does so as to affirm a different same that is absolutely contingent. To borrow again from Deleuze, we might say: a “prodigious”, unexpected turn of the becoming.
 
 

The Uncanniness of the Ordinary: Aesthetic Implications of Stanley Cavell’s Rethinking of Das Unheimliche

Abstract Through the many reinterpretations of Freud’s essay Das Unheimliche (1919) within French Postmodernism, in recent decades, the uncanny has become a vague synonym for the methodology of deconstruction. The article aims to disambiguate the uncanny by reestablishing its characterizing nucleus and relocating it within the aesthetics through the philosophy of Stanley Cavell. The American philosopher claims that this feeling can be generated by drawing attention to the ordinary, which is so close and familiar to fade out of focus. Cavell and the German Philosopher Juliane Rebentisch following him show that artistic practices can reinforce this experience, as through displacements and dislocations, they deprive objects of daily use and ordinary matters of their familiarity and force us to look more closely at their material, sensorial, and phenomenological dimensions. In this way, Cavell and Rebentisch offer a path to reconstitute a stable conceptual framework for defining the uncanny, linking it to Freud’s definition of something familiar appearing in an unfamiliar light. At the same time, they also propose a novelty by interpreting the uncanny not as inherently frightening and disturbing but as a compelling affective state that encourages a willingness to reappropriate and rediscover the ordinary.

A Comparative Study of the Anthropocene Factors in J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World and the Selected Modern Persian Eco-Poems Through Meteorological Hazards

ABSTRACT The Anthropocene is a geological time scale when human beings have taken planet Earth outside of its natural capacity. In literature, this era is represented through the thematic genre known as climate fiction. This type of fiction paves a new path in literary works by imagining possible futures and alternative presents to reconfigure our dystopian eras. This article opens a dialogue between English and Persian literature that enables us to echo our voices, reconstruct the present, reconsider the status quo, and avoid future disasters. By employing the concepts of Das Unheimliche, The Judgement, and The Last Man, this comparative study revolves around the literary portrayal of the symbiosis relationship between nature and human beings in Ballard’s (1930–2009) The Drowned World (1962) and the selected Modern Persian eco-poems from different Iranian poets. Following this approach, the present inquiry proves that despite their uncommon nations and forms, both literatures share a convergent characteristic in unveiling the Anthropocene factors.

The Paradox of Home in Heidegger’s Philosophy

Heidegger’s philosophy has influenced largely the humanities and arts and has also been a source of interest in architecture. Although Heidegger has written on architecture, this paper will argue that one of the key topics in his philosophy, intertwined with architecture, is the concept of home (das Heim). In Heidegger’s philosophy, the homely (das Heimische) was intertwined with its opposition, the uncanny (das Unheimliche). This paper discusses the different understandings of home in Heidegger’s seminal works. The paradoxical structure of home in Heidegger’s philosophy is discussed, as home in Heidegger’s philosophy is impossible for modern man with his horrifying nature, perpetuated by the uncanny.

Psykoanalysens poetik

In this article the author opens a discussion on Freud' s ideas of a psychoanalytic theory of aesthetics. The discussion is primarily concentrated on two of Freud's literary analyses: Wilhelm Jensen's novel Gradiva from 1907 and E.T.A. Hoffmann's storyabout the Sandman from 1919. The author points out the problem that Freud's aesthetic analyses almost all havetheir roots in his earlier writings, i.e. before the introduction of the structural model and the revised theory of instinct.This means that the Pleasure principle and the Wish-fulfilment theory originating from the work of dream interpretation are the thematic premises behind Freud' s thoughts about art and creativity. This hedonistic point of view has not without reason been criticized for reducing the rich complexity of art. With the reformulation of the theory of instinct and the introduction of Repetitioncompulsion a shift in perspective is accomplished in what could be called the aesthetics of psychoanalysis. Emphasized is the suggestion of this reformulation in the article from 1919 about Das Unheimliche in which the analysis of the Sandman is part.The author finally suggests a continued discussion implying a clarification of the concept of sublimation so vital to psychoanalytical poetics.

Mapping the Unhomely in Edna O’Brien’s The Little Red Chairs

Abstract Sigmund Freud elaborates the conceptualization of the unhomely (uncanny) from a psychoanalytical perspective in his 1919 essay “Das Unheimliche.” Thereafter, Martin Heidegger, in Being and Time, probes the idea from a philosophical aspect, asserting that the unhomely is an existential–ontological state of human existence; and subsequently, Homi K. Bhabha has identified the political significance of the concept. In her 2015 fiction The Little Red Chairs, based on the war crimes of a Bosnian Serb leader, Edna O’Brien, as a literary cartographer, maps and appraises historical figures and events in the spaces of the imaginative and the real. The novel powerfully exemplifies the theorization of the unhomely and illuminates Judith Butler’s theories of precariousness and interdependency through the delineation of displacement, violence, and characters’ psychological movements.

디지털 시대의 혐오

This article shows that hatred is performed in the imaginary sealing of the fragmented bodily self, by analyzing Sigmund Freud's concept “das Unheimliche (the uncanny)”, Julia Kristeva's concept “abject” and Jacques Lacan's theory of “mirror stage”. To this end, this article first analyses the Freud's psychoanalysis and the Kristeva's theory of language and argue that hatred is closely linked to the uncanny fear of confronting abjects that remind us our death. And through the urban theory of Edward Soja and Celeste Oralquiaga, it is argued that the digital urbanization in postmetropolis which constitutes in de-territorialization and hybridization tends to trigger a mental breakdown surrounded by the fear of self-destruction. Finally, I insist with Lacan that some digital citizens respond to this fear by imaginatively sealing their fragmented egos through integrated ego images in the digital mirror. In this imaginary sealing are the fragmented egos excluded and the abjects hated.

THE UNCANNY: DEVELOPMENT AND PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUTURE

In 1919 Sigmund Freud raised the interest in the uncanny by claiming in his essay "Das Unheimliche" that something can be familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Since the emergence of the concept in the 20th century, many scholars have presented their own definition of the uncanny. The concept originates from the German unheimlich but the meaning reaches far beyond its dictionary definition. As Masschelein suggests, the word itself "is untranslatable qua form and content" (Masschelein 2011, 7) and as long as the uncanny cannot be understood literally, the ambiguity of the term can lead to a multitude of interpretations. The aim of this paper is to explore how the perception of the uncanny has been changing through the years in connection with the Freudian definition. The paper offers an overview of various interpretations of the concept starting from 1906 until today. The juxtaposition of the most significant views on the uncanny shows how the concept has gradually formed a basis for various fields of study such as literature and art. The paper presents future perspectives of the uncanny where it no longer refers only to the motif of the double or supernatural elements but it also tackles the problems of body transformations and politics.

How does the Uncanny manifest itself in Photography?

How does the Uncanny manifest itself in Photography?

Heideggers unheimliche Heimat

Martin Heidegger has been labeled the philosopher of “home” (Heimat) and “homelessness” (Heimatlosigkeit). But he is also the philosopher of “the uncanny” (das Unheimliche). The present paper first explores the uncanniness provoked by anxiety as Heidegger describes it in Being and Time. It then shows how this uncanniness is based on the relationship between thinking and being, as already described by Parmenides and exemplified by Heidegger in his interpretation of the first chorus in Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. Heidegger shows that the uncanny in the relationship between thinking and being, i.e. between “Humanity” and “Being”, is not based in their difference but their identity. Humans, understood as “being-there” (Da-sein), have to cope with the fact that they have to disclose in their actions – be it thinking, writing poetry or fabricating – the essence of Being, which consists in being the autonomous appearing of beings. Thus, humanity has to accept the uncanniness of not being the independent subject dominating Earth, but a part of evolving nature itself.

Kaitlin Clifton Forcier. Review of "Beyond the Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI" by Claudia Schmuckli.

Kaitlin Clifton Forcier. Review of "Beyond the Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI" by Claudia Schmuckli.

“Who should we hate today?”: Notes from an illiberal laboratory

Similarly to other ethnofuturistic movements (e.g. Afrofuturism, Blaccelerationism, Sinofuturism, Gulf-Futurism, Baltic Ethnofuturism) Hungarofuturism is an experiment in identity-poetical imagination, based on a radically ironic exaggeration of minority identity. As opposed to notions of Hungarianness currently hegemonic in Hungary, this is an alternative concept of what it means to be Hungarian, the discovery of a post-Hungarianism. The Hungarofuturist reprogramming of the hegemonic “nation-machine” does not create organic knowledge and narratives, but anachronisms, phantom-like events in which the incompatibility of the various elements hybridizes history and the cosmos until the very moment of “overidentification” (Slavoj Žižek). One of the primary examples of Hungarofuturist “overidentification” is best demonstrated in the example of hijacking and appropriating the most common pseudo-myth of the esoteric subcultures of the Hungarian far-right: Hungarians—as the so-called “chosen ones”—originating from outer space, namely from the Sirius star system. One of the primary aims of this article is to decipher, hijack, and deweaponize the core of this conspiracy theory, thus demonstrating how Hungarofuturist’s ways of (counter-) narrative-making are capable of deconstructing the phantoms of 1 This essay is partially based on our following previous texts: “Hungarofuturist Manifesto”, in Technologie und das Unheimliche, 2017; “Terraforming PostHungarianness”, WUK, 2020; “Parapolitik der Außerirdischen Interessen”, Kunst und Kirche, 2021. ethnographic authenticity promoted not only by FIDESZ, but by contemporary nationalist political agendas all over the world.

Correction to: Moral Uncanny Valley: A Robot’s Appearance Moderates How its Decisions are Judged

Correction to: Moral Uncanny Valley: A Robot’s Appearance Moderates How its Decisions are Judged

Unspeakable references — On infective states of words and images in the "SHUT DOWN 2020" project

The authors discuss a collective art project, initiated by them during the time of the first COVID-19 shutdown in Europe in late spring 2020. With 58 participants contributing short texts in combination with an image, the collection reflects the specific responses to the new situation. This article investigates the state of the project after its publication by a German online cultural magazine (CulturMag). A fusion of the authors’ expertise, ranging from psychoanalytic theory to literary and performative experimentation, undertakes a tentative deciphering of what lies unrecognised and virulent amidst and in between verbal and visual elements. Reflections on the uncanny, "das Unheimliche" (Sigmund Freud) – as well as "l’extimité" (Jacques Lacan) – connect paradoxical psychic (non-, mis-, over- etc.) representation of the COVID-19 danger with all too well un/known experiences of ongoing states of emergency – touching on their ecological, economical, ideological aspects, tiptoeing perhaps on the windblown tracks of childhood fears? In this way the authors asked the participants, most of them artists and writers, to submit to us something of their lives in the NOW – “no analysis, no commentaries. We've got enough of those. We want to know what is going on inside your rabbit holes" (Helbling/Reiche, 2020) – in order to find 'unspeakable references’ with precision and in abundance.

Continuing as an ‘Open incompleteness’: Motoshinkakarannū and uncanny Okinawa

Why Okinawa? Why Motoshinkakarannū? In his essay published in the book The Burning Strait: NDU and Nunokawa Tetsurō’s Cinema/Movement (Moyuru kaikyō: NDU to Nunokawa Tetsurō no eiga/undō ni mukete,...

The Double Vision of "Das Unheimliche"

The Double Vision of "Das Unheimliche" Matthew Zavislan (bio) Wasn't he looking, through the haunted pane, for something he couldn't see?—and wasn't it the first time in the whole business that he had known such a lapse? —Henry James, The Turn of the Screw I We begin with a confession: "it is only rarely that a psychoanalyst feels impelled [Antrieb] to investigate the subject of aesthetics" (Freud 1919, 219). Occupied with his work in "other planes of mental life," the psychoanalyst has "little to do with those subdued emotional activities which . . . usually furnish the material for a study of aesthetics" (219). This is an extraordinary claim; one that seems rather out of sync with the profusion of poetic references that adorn Freud's texts. Of course, the author here admits that "it does occasionally happen that he has to interest himself in some particular province of that subject," but when this happens "it usually proves to be a rather remote region of it" for reason of it having been otherwise neglected in aesthetic writings (219). The psychoanalyst, therefore, in writing on aesthetics is not in his home country but far afield in some remote region of some distant province. The psychoanalyst is doubly estranged: he is neither in his usual psychoanalytic haunts nor even, insofar [End Page 29] as he resides in the foreign province of aesthetics, in the familiar landscape of beautiful things, but in a remote and fearful corner. Impelled there by whatever strange force drives him, it is an altogether appropriate subject with which the psychoanalyst concerns himself here: das unheimliche, the uncanny. Himself not-at-home, we can perhaps understand why in his introductory remarks the author of the text speaks from the indefinite position before, in the body of the text, abandoning this indefinite form of address in favor of the first person. After telling us that "a psychoanalyst feels impelled" on those rare occasions in which "he has to interest himself," the author begs our forbearance, confessing that "the writer of the present contribution, indeed, must himself plead guilty to a special obtuseness in the matter, where extreme delicacy of perception would be more in place" (1919, 220). This is again a rather extraordinary claim, not least since it seems that the work of the psychoanalyst would indeed be precisely that work which engages an "extreme delicacy of perception." But no matter. What is at stake here is a certain debt for which the author feels compelled to answer. And how does he answer? First of all, we are told that the one who is impelled is "a psychoanalyst"—not psychoanalysis in general or psychoanalytic theory, but a psychoanalyst. That is, the debt belongs to a person, which, of course, is the psychoanalyst—Freud himself who, feeling impelled, is writing. But the compulsion of this debt is not Freud's own finite or infinite debt, but an indefinite debt: the debt of "a psychoanalyst" who has to "interest himself in some particular province" which "usually proves to be rather remote." It is a kind of debt in the abstract, an indefinite compulsion that begins the work. And what does the author do with this debt? He pleads guilty; he asks for forbearance. In the payment of this debt which is, as he claims, not really his own, "he [meaning Freud himself] must start by translating himself into that state of feeling, and awakening in himself the possibility of experiencing it" (220; emphasis added). If Freud here is the one who writes, the one whose debt inaugurates the compulsion, he does so in a foreign language. [End Page 30] We've actually skipped over a paragraph in which Freud writes about himself. He's justifying the claim that a psychoanalyst only concerns himself with certain remote regions of the province of aesthetics, and avows that "I know of only one attempt in medico-psychological literature" to give an account of the uncanny, done by one E. Jentsch. It is a "fertile" attempt, but not "exhaustive." Yet, Freud continues, "I must confess that I have not made a very thorough examination of the bibliography," and thus "my paper is presented to the...

Negotiating Meaning: The Case of ‘The Uncanny’ and ‘Ajīb-o Gharīb

Negotiating Meaning: The Case of ‘The Uncanny’ and ‘<i>Ajīb-o Gharīb</i>

Narcissism and the Aesthetics of ‘The Uncanny’

Narcissism and the Aesthetics of ‘The Uncanny’