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The Uncanny In Sigmund Freud's Das Unheimliche

1596 Words7 Pages

The psychological concept of the uncanny as something that is strangely familiar, rather than just mysterious, was perhaps first fixed by Sigmund Freud in his essay Das Unheimliche. The meaning of the uncanny is something fearful and frightening, and as such it has been neglected in the history of aesthetics, It is basically depended on aesthetics or beauty, the principles of beauty, for instance, if I ask you about my jacket is it nice or not? You maybe tell me yes it is nice “I love it “or maybe no “I hate it “, according what? It is according to your feeling or emotion, your principles of beauty. But the big question is what the relationship between aesthetics and the uncanny is? We already said something uncanny means something unfamiliar …show more content…

This suggests that everything begins familiar and can become uncanny things are not uncanny initially. This is reflected in the German words heimlich and unheimlich, where something is added to the word for familiar Instead of unheimlich standing on its own and having something taken away for it to become familiar, it is only in association with the original, familiar word that it can be defined as uncanny. Amongst the definitions of heimlich and unheimlich, Freud points out the growing similarities between the two words. Heimlich’s main definition is familiar not strange but it also means generating a sense of peaceful pleasure and security as in one within the four walls of his house. The meaning of heimlich is slowly becoming more ambiguous. Heimlich can also mean kept from sight withheld from others at which point heimlich and unheimlich seem to be …show more content…

These include; the loss of sight, specifically through the removal of eyes by the Sandman, and severed limbs. Near the end of the essay, Freud says that what is uncanny in literature could be experienced differently than what is uncanny in real life. This is in part because we accept the world introduced in literature as separate than our real world, with different rules governing what can and cannot happen. Freud uses fairy tales as an example, we do not view Snow White’s return from the dead as an uncanny moment, nor do we suggest the resuscitation of the dead in the New Testament is uncanny. Uncanny moments in literature do occur when the author places the story in the real world the reader lives

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