Sigmund Freud's 1919 essay defines the uncanny as the kind of frightening thing that leads back to what is known and long familiar. He looks at the German words heimlich and unheimlich, analyzes E.T.A. Hoffmann's story The Sandman, and discusses doubles, automata, repetition, the fear of losing eyes, and the return of repressed ideas, in a study that mixes literature and psychoanalysis.
It is for readers of literary theory and of horror. It gives a way to think about why dolls, doubles and coincidences can be disturbing, and it has influenced much later criticism.
Deep, inward-looking and open-ended; a demanding read.
Best for readers like The Literary Connoisseur. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2014
- Publisher
- Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
- ISBN
- 9781496150981
- Language
- DE
