Ponencia en la Universidad de Harvard

The uncanny after Freud

Ponencia presentada el 18 de marzo en "The American Comparative Literature Association's 2016 Annual Meeting, Harvard University".

By María de los Angeles López Ortega

Abstract

Sigmund Freud, the father of Psychoanalysis, wrote the essay “The uncanny”, in 1919. He based his essay on Jentsh study about the uncanny. Freud analyzed the German word unheimlich and the opposite word heimlich that means familiar or belonging to the home and he concluded that the uncanny is frightening because it is unknown and familiar, both at the same time. So, according to Freud, the uncanny refers to the terrible, dread and creeping horror and, the fearful things or situation.

There have been some other authors who have analyzed Freud’s essay and gave their own points of view. Some of them have reviewed the term uncanny and some others have applied the term to the analysis of different works of art, such as paintings, films and literature.

In this paper there will be an examination of the works of other writers who have been interested in the uncanny such as Harold Bloom, Enrique Pichon Rivière, Nicholas Royle, Eugenio Trías, Amelia DeFalco, Daisy Connon, and Laurie Ruth Johnson.

It is pretended to show how Freud’s essay has influenced other authors to develop and apply the term uncanny.

Key words: uncanny, Sigmund Freud, Eugenio Trías.

http://www.acla.org/program-guide#/presenters/1675/seminar/5360