The Uncanny Analysis

At the origin, ‘The Uncanny’ that Freud calls ‘Unheimlich’ in German, denotes anything or a situation that is unfamiliar, uncomfortable, gloomy, dismal or ghastly. In this case ‘the uncanny’ which is understood as ‘unfamiliar’ appears opposed to the ‘familiar’ that Freud terms ‘heimlich’ in German to denote the existence of anything or situation which bears the qualities of intimacy to render a person feel comfortable (p.196). From the concept ‘Unheimlich’, Freud signifies the presence of estrangement in the home; there is a threatening feeling of the unknown that is located in the realm of the intimate and which creates permanent disturbance. Freud, however, counterbalances the presence of the threats of Unheimlich with the relieving effects generated by the Heimlich, "homely" which refers to something already known and relaxing on one side and hidden on the other. In Freud’s view, an individual’s home is a sort of a secret …show more content…
At this juncture, we can understand that the uncanny is a part of an individual’s unconscious mind. According to Freud, the return of the repressed is an appropriate example of the manifestation of the uncanny which often appears in a shocking mood. Basically, it is this manifestation of the repressed horrors of slavery that leads Sethe to murder her baby. In Song of Solomon, Robert Smith commits suicide out of excessive humiliation due to racial discrimination: he attempts to fly and plummets to death. Hagar goes mad and commits suicide too out of repressed memories of a betrayed love which come to surface. While reading how the uncanny directs characters’ actions in the texts under study, this concept makes possible the interpretation of how and for what purpose the shocking experiences are deployed in Morrison’s