The Uncanny And Monuments Analysis

Bennett and Royle monumentalized their ideas through their literary critique, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory. In their critique, they offer readers an opportunity to explore different literary topics, such as The Uncanny and Monuments, which are common underlying themes in an abundant amount of literature. Bennett and Royle argue, through Bloom and Jonson, that “we bury poets as we raise monuments of reading to them and our sense that, still, they hold over us an uncanny, haunting power, which brings us to them, brings us back to them” (52). In other words, Bennett and Royle claim that as we admire an artist’s work, we kill their person and remember them only through their work. In remembering them only through their work, we are …show more content…
This concept is apparent in the novel, Chatterton, in which Peter Ackroyd depicts the ‘irreducible conflict’ between an individual’s uncanny doubling through monumentalization and the deathly tole required of anyone seeking immortality. Initially, understanding Bennett and Royles definition of moumentalization is imperative to understanding and grasping the full effect of Ackroyd’s depictions. In chapter six, “Monuments”, Bennett and Royle explain, “the nature of the literary monument and the way in which writings of living authors are posthumously transformed into monuments to those author’s lives and work” (44). Thus, an author is able to be remember and reconnected with after their death as they come back to life through their work. According to the Oxford Dictionary, in order for something to be a monument, it