Uncanny Aesthetics

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-166
Author(s):  
Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli

Uncanny aesthetics examines how the discourse of the uncanny emerged from a reading of E. T. A Hoffmann’s short story “The Sandman,” in the works of Ernst Jentsch and Sigmund Freud, and how these readings have shaped the way we think about the uncanny as both experiential and aesthetic. These interpretations demonstrate, as Samuel Weber puts it, “a certain indecidability” between what we personally experience and what is predetermined. The uncanny has, however, shifted from a fear of confronting unhuman objects to the fear of being exposed to others beyond the devices and programs with which we have intimate relations, and the existential crisis of not measuring up to the technologies that simulate us.

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Patterson

This article addresses the increasingly popular approach to Freud and his work which sees him primarily as a literary writer rather than a psychologist, and takes this as the context for an examination of Joyce Crick's recent translation of The Interpretation of Dreams. It claims that translation lies at the heart of psychoanalysis, and that the many interlocking and overlapping implications of the word need to be granted a greater degree of complexity. Those who argue that Freud is really a creative writer are themselves doing a work of translation, and one which fails to pay sufficiently careful attention to the role of translation in writing itself (including the notion of repression itself as a failure to translate). Lesley Chamberlain's The Secret Artist: A Close Reading of Sigmund Freud is taken as an example of the way Freud gets translated into a novelist or an artist, and her claims for his ‘bizarre poems' are criticized. The rest of the article looks closely at Crick's new translation and its claim to be restoring Freud the stylist, an ordinary language Freud, to the English reader. The experience of reading Crick's translation is compared with that of reading Strachey's, rather to the latter's advantage.


2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-223
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Goodstein

In 1922 Sigmund Freud wrote to fellow Viennese author and dramatist Arthur Schnitzler: ‘I believe I have avoided you out of a sort of fear of my double’. Through a series of reflections on this imagined doubling and its reception, this paper demonstrates that the ambivalent desire for his literary other attested by Freud's confession goes to the heart of both theoretical and historical questions regarding the nature of psychoanalysis. Bringing Schnitzler's resistance to Freud into conversation with attempts by psychoanalytically oriented literary scholars to affirm the Doppengängertum of the two men, it argues that not only psychoanalytic theories and modernist literature but also the tendency to identify the two must be treated as historical phenomena. Furthermore, the paper contends, Schnitzler's work stands in a more critical relationship to its Viennese milieu than Freud's: his examination of the vicissitudes of feminine desire in ‘Fräulein Else’ underlines the importance of what lies outside the oedipal narrative through which the case study of ‘Dora’ comes to be centered on the uncanny nexus of identification with and anxious flight from the other.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Jenness

This paper explores the way American intellectuals depicted Sigmund Freud during the peak of popularity and prestige of psychoanalysis in the US, roughly the decade and a half following World War II. These intellectuals insisted upon the unassailability of Freud's mind and personality. He was depicted as unsusceptible to any external force or influence, a trait which was thought to account for Freud's admirable comportment as a scientist, colleague and human being. This post-war image of Freud was shaped in part by the Cold War anxiety that modern individuality was imperilled by totalitarian forces, which could only be resisted by the most rugged of selves. It was also shaped by the unique situation of the intellectuals themselves, who were eager to position themselves, like the Freud they imagined, as steadfastly independent and critical thinkers who would, through the very clarity of their thought, lead America to a more robust democracy.


Author(s):  
Adrien Ordonneau

Consequences of capitalism’s crises and their manifestations in arts have deeply modified the way we can approach mental health. As Mark Fisher pointed out in 2009 with his book Capitalist Realism, neoliberalism is using mental illness as a way to keep existing. The capacity to think a way out of alienation is deeply linked with arts and popular culture. The article proposes to study the uncanny dialogue between arts and politics in relationships to people, and mental health. The theoretical framework will show how arts are trying to build a way out of alienation, since 2009. The article will illustrate this research with the study of many artistic practices, including our own. The findings will show how the ambiguous and uncanny relationships with the world is used by artists as a way out of alienation, despite the difficulties occurring with mental health in time of crisis.


Author(s):  
Johann-Albrecht Meylahn

The religious turn in continental philosophy has opened the door for postmetaphysical mystical theology. Postmetaphysical mystical theology seeks to understand the non-relation relation of language (text) to the Other. Yet, this non-relation relation to the Other, who is every other, can also be interpreted differently to the mystical understanding. For example, Žižek argues that the Other, which is often experienced as the uncanny, the unpredictable and the contingent (lived spirituality), is not necessarily the result of some mystical unknowable Otherness but is a consequence of the way the subject’s own activity is inscribed into reality. These experiences of lived spirituality or experiences of Otherness can, rather than being interpreted as an in-breaking of the mystical Other, be interpreted otherwise, as a grammatological consequence of the inability and impossibility of language (Lacan). Therefore, in this article, Žižek’s thoughts function as a bridge to bring this mystical turn back into critical conversation with continental philosophy and particularly with the thoughts of Derrida, Laruelle and Stiegler. The contemporary mystical turn in theology rediscovers something of this non-religious religion. Derrida’s thoughts are in close proximity to negative theology and yet there is an important difference. This difference will be explored and further developed towards Laruelle’s non-philosophy, which does not translate into a non-religion religion or postmetaphysical metaphysics but remains a non-philosophy or maybe a science of Christ. This article will conclude with a tentative exploration of a postmetaphysical Christ-poetics beyond the mystical turn.


LINGUISTICA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 409
Author(s):  
ULFA YOZA SALSABILA ◽  
ELIA MASA GINTING ◽  
WILLEM SARAGIH

This study aimed to analyze the mood and modality used in the short stories of Willem Iskander’s Si Bulus-Bulus Si Rumbuk-Rumbuk, elaborating and explaining the interpersonal meaning realized in each short story. The source of data was taken from a book authored by Willem Iskander, entitled “Si Bulus- Bulus Si Rumbuk-Rumbuk”. This research showed that : (1) there were 157 clauses in the short stories with three mood types and two degrees of modality. (2) interpersonal meaning is realized based on the order of the subject and the finite. (3) the reason why the interpersonal meaning is realized in the way they are is that the author wants to share his thoughts and experiences of Mandailingnese by classifying each clause and finding the dominant use of declarative mood as the most direct and soft way of conveying the author’s thought


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esron Simarmata ◽  
Muhd Al-Hafizh
Keyword(s):  

This thesis is the analysis of a novel which written by Patricia McCormick entitled Never Fall Down (2012). It explores the issue of endeavour to survive which reflected by the main character. It is also intended to find out the contribution of fictional devices such as character, plot (conflict), and setting in revealing the issue of endeavour to survive. This analysis is related to the concept of life instinct which developed by Sigmund Freud that is supported by the text-based and context-based interpretation. The result of this analysis shows about the way the main character survive in dealing with any situation in his life by changing his mindset and behaviour.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Felandri ◽  
Desvalini Anwar

This thesis is the analysis of a play written by Annie Baker entitled The Flick (2013). It explores the issue of striving for survival and success reflected by the main character. This issue refers to the way the main character deals with all the difficulties and tries to reach a dream in his life. It is also intended to find out the contribution of fictional devices such as character, plot (conflict), and stage direction in revealing the issue of striving for survival and success. This analysis is related to the concept of life instinct which developed by Sigmund Freud and also supported by the text-based and context-based interpretation. The result of this analysis shows about the way the main character persistence in surviving and achieving goals in his life through the efforts of socialization and self-interest exploration made by the character.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilma Fitriani ◽  
Leni Marlina

This thesis is the analysis of a novel which written by Chris Abani entitled Graceland (2004). It explores the issue of step up efforts to enlightenment which reflected by the main character. It is also intended to find out the contribution of fictional devices such as character, plot (conflict), and setting in revealing the issue of efforts to enlightenment. This analysis is related to the concept of life instinct which self-awareness by Sigmund Freud that is supported by the text-based and context-based interpretation. The result of this analysis shows about the way the main character effort to enlightenment in dealing with any situation in his life by building self-awareness, gaining thinking skill and having vocational skill.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
Cut Ruby Miranda ◽  
Helmita Helmita

In writing this thesis, the writer discusses the depression of women because of patriarchal traditions, even though they already know about women's rights and freedoms. This patriarchal tradition is that men hold full power over anything and women must always obey the rules of men. The women are required not to do any activities, in terms of education and employment. Women are only allowed to do homework. This applies to all women, both single and married. This began in the 90s, especially in the United States. In writing the thesis, the writer uses psychological and feminist theories according to Sigmund Freud and Maggie Humm, who will explore the psychological side of women who are oppressed by the existence of this patriarchal custom. The purposes of this paper are: (1) To describe psychological-feminist cases in female characters (2) To analyze psychological-feminists in depressed female characters (3) To explain the psychological-feminist influence with female characters in the short story of The Yellow Wallpaper from Charlotte Perkins Gilman, A Rose For Emily from William Faulkner, The Story Of An Hour by Kate Chopin. The author uses descriptive qualitative methods in processing data. Through analysis of several existing sources and data. Based on available data, the writer discover how the psychology of depressed female characters from their environment is intimidated based on the short story. In fact women can become depressed because their freedom of expression is hampered and prohibited by tradition. With the writing of this thesis, it is hoped that the public can find out what exactly the meaning of women's emancipation is without having to put down women or men.


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