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Freud's Uncanny Narratives Author(s): Robin Lydenberg Source: PMLA, Vol. 112, No. 5 (Oct., 1997), pp.

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Robin Lydenberg

Freud'sUncannyNarratives

ROBINLYDENBERG, professor ofEnglish at BostonCollege,is the authorof WordCultures: RadicalTheory andPractice in WilliamS. Burroughs' Fiction (U ofIllinois PE1987)and a cowith editor, Jennie Skerl, ofWilliamS. Burroughs at theFront: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 (Southern Illinois UP,1991).She is working on a critical study of theuncanny and a larger projecton Freud and narration.

N THE ESSAY "DelusionsandDreamsin Wilhelm Jensen's Gradiva"("DerWahn unddieTraume inW.Jensens 'Gradiva"';1907), Freud claimsthat Jensen's characters the"lawswhich theactiviembody tiesof [the] unconscious must dieBetatigung obey"'Gesetzen diesesUnbewul3ten muB3' folgen (92; 363). To demonstrate thisassertion, Freud summarizes Jensen's theessential novella, retaining content butdepriving thestory ofitsnarrative "charm" 'Reiz' (10; 276).In "TheMosesofMichelangelo" ("DerMosesdesMichelangelo"; 1914),Freud this effort repeats to separate content from form, himself declaring moreinterested in the ofworks "subject-matter ofart"'Inhalt einesKunstwerkes' than in "formalandtechnical qualities" 'formale undtechnische Eigenschaften' (211; 257). In these andother texts, Freud however, doesnotmerely reduce the verbal andvisualarts toa setofpsychoanalytic laws;he shows himself to be a consummate ofnarrative. practitioner His adept treatment ofthematic content is inextricable from hisawareness andmanipulation ofstylistic andeffects. strategies In thisessay,I explore notonlyFreud'spotential usefulness tocontemporary theories ofnarrative, as Peter Brooks hasdone (Psychoanalysis 47), butalsotheimportance ofhiswork toanunderstandingofthemore general relation between literature andpsychoanalysis. The initial working definition I identify bywhich sitesofnarrative is that usedin narratology: generally thecommunication ofa sequenceof events (realorfictional) connected bychronology andcausality andheld together bysomeunifying human interest. Structural narratologists like A. J.Greimas andTzvetan Todorov emphasize thestabilizing function ofnarrative elements suchas binary opposition, hierarchy, linearity, cloandwholeness. sure, Butsuchstabilizing effects areexposedas illusory bytheorists likePaul de Man whoassert theproblematic nature ofreadingandthe"autonomous potential of language" to subvert thecontrollingstructures ofnarrative, tovoid"aesthetic andtogenerate categories," an irreducible "something often referred to as literariness" (10, 9). In reading Freud,I takeintoaccountboththestabilizing structures and destabilizing literariness ofnarrative, which emerges as a hybrid ofconvention and innovation, law and transgression, logic and nonsense, conscious andunconscious effects.'

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Although manyof Freud'sessays providefertileground forexploring thisconception of narrainfluenced tive,thetextthathas moststrikingly of narratology critics at theintersection working and psychoanalysis is "The Uncanny" ("Das Unheimliche"). In that Freud the 1919essay, analyzes kindof fearprovoked "wheninfantile particular complexeswhichhave been repressed are once morerevived or whenprimiby someimpression, tive beliefswhichhave been surmounted seem once moreto be confirmed" 'wennverdrangte infantileKomplexe durcheinen Eindruckwieder belebtwerden, oderwennuiberwundene primitive Uberzeugungen wiederbestatigt scheinen'(249; of theuncanny 403). The ambiguity as bothfamiliar and unfamiliar is reinforced by Freud'sexof the Germanwordunheimlich: amination the root,heimlich, carriesthe primary signification "familiar andagreeable" 'Vertrauten, Behaglichen' (224; 375), butin its secondary meaning it coincideswith itsopposite, "concealed and unheimlich, keptout of sight"'Versteckten, Verborgengehaltenen' (224-25; 375). What is mostintimately known andfamiliar, then, is always already divided within bysomething alienandthreatenpotentially ofboundaries ing.Such a blurring is characteristic ofthosephenomena that giveriseto uncanny fear, including "animism, magicand sorcery, theomofthoughts, nipotence man'sattitude to death, involuntary and thecastration repetition complex" '[der]Animismus, [die]Magie undZauberei, [die] Allmachtder Gedanken,[die] Beziehung zum Tode, [die] unbeabsichtigten und Wiederholung [der]Kastrationskomplex' (243; 396). The uncannyconfusionof "imaginationand reality" 'PhantasieundWirklichkeit,' "a symbol ... [and]thething itsymbolizes" 'ein Symbol... "theover-accentuation [undder]Symbolisierten,' of psychicalreality in comparison withmaterial 'die Uberbetonung reality" derpsychischen Realitatim Vergleich zurmateriellen' has a particular relevanceto narrative fiction (244; 398). Critics such as Homi Bhabha, JoanCopjec, and Mary Jacobusapplyto literary worksFreud'stheoretical explanation of theuncanny blurring of such but others, like Helene Cixous and boundaries, Patrick Mahony, havealso found "The Uncanny" illuminating as an exampleof uncanny narrative.

Some of thesecriticalreadings thatpersuggest haps themostessential of narrative is unquality canniness,a notionthatin turnilluminates the moregeneral uncanniness of languageand of the ofFreud'sessay speaking subject.My discussion also considers thelargebodyofcriticism provoked thepast twodecades. by "The Uncanny" during The fertility ofthis field critical testifies to a generativepower that is a characteristic oftheuneffect canniness ofnarrative. Like recent oftheuncanny, theorists finds Freud himself somewhat uncomfortably situated attheintersection of psychoanalysis and literature. He openshisessaybyacknowledging that "only rarely to investi[does] a psycho-analyst [feel]impelled gatethesubject ofaesthetics" '[d]erPsychoanalytikerverspurt nurselten zu asthetischen denAntrieb Untersuchungen' (219; 369). Notquiteat homein thisaesthetic territory yet"impelled"to enter it, Freuddevelopsa psychoanalytic of interpretation theuncanny usingsupporting from literaexamples ture. He analyzesE. T. A. Hoffmann's short story "TheSandman" for ("Der Sandmann"), to example, illustrate theuncanny psychiceffects of oedipal conflict and castration At theend of the anxiety. Freud is essay still troubled intheunbysomething that a psychoanalytic canny resists andhe approach, that suggests "whatremains probably calls foran aesthetic enquiry" 'derResterfordere warscheinlich eineasthetische Untersuchung' (247; 401). However, theelusive"something" that inhabits language andliterature cannot be reduced to a systemof aesthetics, as de Man argues(8), anymore thanto a theory ofpsychoanalysis. In factseveral readers of"The Uncanny" havepointed outthat in "The Sandman"to itsthemes reducing (or to his ownthemes), Freudignores thecomplexity ofthe narrative framework andobscures theelements that constitute thestory's literariness. Cixousrefers to thisliterary remainder as the"something else" beyondthematics (528), and Neil Hertzsensesit in the"something else again"(108) that cannot be attributed to demonic ortopsychological entirely influences.2 on thenarrative of"The Focusing frame Hertzunites Sandman," thestory's hero(thepoet thenarrator, Nathaniel), Hoffmann, andultimately Freudand the literary criticthrough the shared "toleavea lasting compulsions mark" andto "make

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a story outof [disconnected elements]" (110, 117). Hertzcalls thefirst the"desirefor representation" (110); the second might be called the desirefor narration. By focusingon the themesof "The Sandman"to theexclusionof itsnarrative form, Freudoverlooks theaspectsof hisroleas a storyteller that connect himto thetale'sprincipals: the struggle with thelimitations oflanguage to express intellectual and emotional conflict, thedesireto sweepreaders up in hisownwayofseeing. Instead of focusing on theseauthorial struggles and desires,Freudperceives thefiction writer in generalas exercising the"right" 'Recht' to construct theworld at will,whilereaders must "bowto hisdecision" 'ihmdarin nachgeben' and"put[themselves]intohis hands"'furdie Dauer [ihrer] Hingegebenheit' (230; 382). Freudconfesses that his own response to certain writers' of manipulation himas a readeris a "feeling of dissatisfaction, a kindofgrudge against theattempted deceit"'Gefuhl vonUnbefriedigung, eine ArtvonGrolluiber die versuchte Tauschung'(251; 406). Writers like he concludes, Hoffmann, wieldan almost demonic powerovertheir audience. In an apparent effort to reassert thecontrol he loses as a reader, Freudexercisesin "The Uncanny" the"privileges" 'Vorrechte' (251; 406) of story he manipulates writers: his audiencebygiving expression to theuncanny ina seriesofpersonal anecdotes. Brought to lifein narrative form, theseincidents exceedtheir functionas illustrations of a theory; thusFreudunleashesthat irreducible something associated with theliterariness ofthetext. Ifonecan avoidtheerror that Freud makesinin"The Sandman"-thatis, ifone can reterpreting sistreducing Freud'sessayto itsthemes-perhaps theliterariness he obscures inHoffmann's narrative can be illuminated in hisown.To that end,I focus on the moments in "The Uncanny"whenFreud takeson thestoryteller's rolebothas a deliberate rhetorical strategy and as an irresistible compulsion, thosemoments when,as BarbaraJohnson might say,he "falls"intonarrative.3 Framedby Narrative The story in "The Uncanny" mostoften discussed is Freud'saccountof an experience by critics he

had whiletraveling in Italy(see esp. Engle; Ginsburg; In theintroductory Mahony). Freud's frame, text shifts from a toneofcautious suddenly andobjectivereasoning to thedistinctly stylized register ofrecit: Thefactor ofthe repetition ofthe same will thing perhapsnot toeveryone appeal as a source ofuncanny feeling. From what I have this observed, phenomenon doesundoubtedly, subject tocertain conditions and combined with certain arouse anuncircumstances, canny feeling, which, furthermore, recalls the sense of helplessness insome experienced dream states. As I waswalking, onehot summer afternoon, the through deserted streets ofa provincial town inItaly which was unknown tome, I found ina quarter myself ofwhose I couldnot character long indoubt. remain Nothing but painted women were tobe seen atthe windows of thesmall houses, andI hastened toleavethe narrow street atthe next Butafter turning. wandered having about for a time without I suddenly enquiring my way, found inthe myself back same street, where my presencewasnow toexcite beginning attention. I hurried oncemore, away toarrive only byanother at detour the same place yet a third time. Now, however, a feelmewhich I can only ingovercame describe as uncanny, andI wasgladenough tofind myself backat the I hadleft piazza a short while before, without any further ofdiscovery. voyages (237) Das Moment derWiederholung des Gleichartigen wird als Quelledesunheimlichen Gefuhls vielleicht nichtbei jedermann Anerkennung finden. Nach meinen Beobachtungen ruft es unter gewissen BedininKombination und gungen mit bestimmten Umstanden unzweifelhaft ein solches Gefuihl hervor, das andieHilflosigkeit iuberdies mancher Traumzustande mahnt. Alsicheinst aneinem heifen Sommernachdiemir mittag unbekannten, menschenleeren StraBen einer italienischen Kleinstadt durchstreifte, geriet ich ineineGegend, uber deren Charakter ichnicht lange inZweifel bleiben konnte. Es waren nur geschminkte Frauen andenFenstern der kleinen Hauser zu sehen, ichbeeilte und dieenge mich, StraBe durch dienachsteEinbiegung zu verlassen. Aber nachdem icheine Weile fuhrerlos herumgewandert war, fand ichmich inderselben plotzlich Straf3e inderichnun wieder, Aufsehen zuerregen begann, und meine eilige Entfernung hatte nur die Folge, daBichaufeinem neuen zumdrittenmal Umwege dahingeriet. Dannaber erfaBte mich einGefuhl, das ichnur als unheimlich

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ofhis uncanny in a helplessness ("I found myself quarter.... I suddenly foundmyself back in the same street. .. only to arrive.. . at the same place an yeta third time"),butthenarrator maintains at a of arriving Freudacknowledges thedifficulty distancethat aloof and controlling conpartially consensuswithhis audienceaboutwhatcircum- tains anddiminishes theepisode'suncanny power. His abrupt stancesgiveriseto uncanny feelings. Freud'snarrative choicesreinforce thisdiminintonarrative as a rhetorical shift operates strategy ishment in severalways. He is lost not in some to capture thereaders'agreement them threatening bymaking butmerely in "a provincial metropolis experience thosecircumstances moredirectly. No town"wheredisorienting is keptto a foreignness longera critical audienceweighing evidenceand manageable scale.The event's temporality is simiarerepositioned argument, Freud'sreaders as con- larly in thetelling; manipulated thevaguely expanof a story sumers who mustgivethemselves over siveduration a time") ofFreud's ("for is wandering to hiscontrol. thepersonal nature ofthe abruptly Although reduced so that whenhe returns to safely events described draws thereader closertothetext, thepiazza,he has beengoneonly"a short while." Freudmaintains hisdistance as a narrator. Thushe The story concludeswitha variation on theconlocates himself both inside and outsidethe un- ventional form ofnarrative inwhich closure events and that structural adds a further areframed canny, doubling as a dream orhallucination which from effect tothenarrative. uncanny bothprotagonist andreader awaken into reality (or Early in the essay Freud proclaimshimself in thiscase, intothepiazza). This framing device immune to uncanny particularly sensations (conserves to limit theuncanny imaginative expansion fessingto a "special obtusenessin the matter" theItalian callsup. experience 'besonderen in dieserSache'), and he Stumpfheit acknowledges a need to "translat[e] himself into On ForeignGround that state offeeling" 'sich... indas Gefuhl hineinversetzen' more totheeffects susceptible oftheun- Despitethesetechniques of framing and control, canny(220; 370). In personalanecdotessuch as Freud's Italian anecdote retains a certain disruptive theItaliantale,Freudmayinvoke a pastselfmore powerbecause it is provoked by and constructed opento uncanny buthe also maintains a feelings, on the uncertain groundof foreign a territory, present who manipulates self,a storyteller such ground particularly fertile for theproduction ofthe The past,narrated feelings. selfis subject to repre- uncanny.4 narrative often Indeed, seemstobe initisentation whoin turn bythenarrator, is subject to atedbyforces that threaten itsstructural integrity thediscursive on which conventions his authority orthat divide itwithin from itsinception. depends. Despitetheappearance ofdistanced conOf specialrelevance toFreud's provincial adventrolthe narrator conveys,his presentself is as turein "The Uncanny" is his complexrelation to mucha product of linguistic effects as is thepast the foreign, to Italy in particular. In a studyof selfconjured up bythenarrative. Freud'saccounts ofhistravels, John Paul RussoilThe narrating selfmaintains a certain advantage, luminates Freud'sobsessionwith Italyin theconhowever.Although the Italian episode exposes textof theuncanny. FreuddescribesRome as a Freudin an embarrassing personal moment ofvul- place where he feels"quitenatural," where he has and confusion, nerability the formulaic stylein "no senseofbeinga foreigner" (Jones 96). During whichit is describedrenders it impersonal. Alone visithe is so attracted by the panoramaof readymarked as narrative by theclassic cadences "[f]oreigners and natives mix[ed]in themostnatof the storyteller's opening("As I was walking, ural way" in thePiazza Colonna thathe returns one hotsummer afternoon"), theepisodeis further there nightly (Letters262). Eveninthemidst ofthis bracketed as moreliterary thanlivedwhenFreud "natural" andpleasing assimilation, however, there labels it a "voyageof discovery." persists self-mockingly anuncanny impression: "strangely enough" The protagonist from rarely emerges thepassivity he findsall theRoman womenand none of the
bezeichnen undich warfroh, als ichunter kann, Verzichtaufweitere aufdie kurzlich Entdeckungsreisen vonmir verlassene Piazza zuruckfand. (389)

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women beautiful foreign (non-Roman) (263). In the Romanpiazza-a sitefor theintersection ofnative andforeign, natural and strange, attraction andrepulsion-Freudis "spellbound" in bytheuncanny itsforeign and feminine form (262). In TheInterpretationof Dreams, as Russo notes,Freud himself

theassociation suggests of Italyand sexuality by to thesimilarity pointing between theGerman for "to Italy"'gen Italien'and "genitals" 'Genitalien'
(Freud,Interpretation 232; Traumdeutung 234).

Such antithetical effects are evident in the way Freud's Italian talesimultaneously andexrepresses amongthe"foreign" womenin thepiazza: "The presses highly charged material, fanstheflames of in this women crowd arevery beautiful (foreigners itsincendiary content yetkeepsthefire under conthewomen ofRome,strangely excepted); enough, trol.6 Freud's ofthestory's handling sexualcontent are beautiful even whentheyare ugly" (Letters is marked bytheambivalence ofhisdoubleroleas 263). The totalizing division Freud makesbetween actor andnarrator, as one bothtouched byandimthe two groupsof womenimposesorderon the muneto theuncanny. Whereas Freuddescribes in field ofsexualdesire: onlythosewhoareunrelated travel letters hisassimilation in theRomanpiazza, to himbynationality remain whilethose he insistsin thisanecdoteon his statusas a foralluring, with whom he shares a native affinity aredenied as intheunfamiliar eigner oftheItalian territory town, objectsofdesire. this However, defensive narrative thereby an alibiforhis misguided providing wanof desireis builton shakyground structuring beanddenying derings intheprostitutes interest he encause ofhisownshifting in relation to the counters. position He emphasizesthattheprostitutes are ofnative andforeign. categories confined to a single"narrow street" in a particular A similar confusion ofnative andforeign occurs "quarter"-more totheir specifically, "small houses," in thelexical digression at thebeginning of "The where they areframed bywindows that display and Uncanny." Freuddeclares his disappointment that immobilize them.Like painted dolls enclosedin can be gleanedabouttheuncanny little from dicminiature domestic spaces,theprostitutes present a tionaries in other languages (Latin, Greek, English, sexualotherness that is rendered unthreatening. French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese). With a canIn his conventionally euphemistic reference to didbutdisorienting he grants "painted self-consciousness, women" andto "a quarter ofwhosecharthatthisdisappointment maystemfrom his own acter[he] could notlongremain in doubt," Freud limitation, "becausewe ourselves speaka language replaces hisinvoluntary wandering inthetown with thatis foreign" 'weil wirselbstFremdsprachige a deliberate linguistic circling aroundtheprostisind'(221; 372). The paradox ofthenative-foreign tutes. As a protagonist, he maybe embarrassed to tongue appearsin condensed form in Freud'sobbe seenreturning to thewomen, repeatedly butas servation that one meaning of heimlich coincides a narrator he uses rhetorical circumlocutions to set withtheprimary meaningof unheimlich. Freud a witty tonethatshieldshimfrom vulnerability subscribes to thetheory that"antithetical double andexposure. meanings"'antithetischen Doppelsinnes'are not Even though such narrative techniques enable inthe"oldest unusual roots"'altesten Wurtzeln' of thewriter to distance anddiminish powerful matethe"oldestlanguagesknownto us" 'altesten uns rial,theriskofputting suchmaterial intocirculabekannten Sprachen';and he notesthatsuch ar- tionremains. The framing gesture that contains the
... a foreigner,"his countrywomenare counted

In constructing narrative accounts ofhisRoman Freudattempts to control experience, itsuncanny effect byusing thecategory offoreignness as a linguistic shifter. He deniesforeignness inhimself but projects itontoothers. Whilehe feelsin "no sense

chaiceffects incurrent persist usage("On theAntithetical Meaning" 158,156; "UberdenGegensinn" 225, 222). Quotingthe philosopher Alexander Bain in English, Freudconcludes that the"essential relativity of all knowledge, or conthought sciousness cannotbut show itselfin language" (159; 226). Narratives constructed of shifting languagewilltherefore havea similarly divided foundation. Andtheconservative ofnarrative, function itsstabilizing ofthefamiliar, willbe subverted by theantithetical effects oftheunfamiliar.5 Womenon theMarket

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the womenin their little housesalso contaminates As dowith forbidden eroticism. domestic sphere these mesticornaments and sexual merchandise, heimlich and unheimwomenare simultaneously takeson gestaconfinement lich.Theirnarrative like an incubator that tionalovertones, operating to multiply until fill causes them they completely wobutpainted Freud'sfieldof vision:"Nothing restricted menweretobe seen."No longer to a paror domicile, female bodiesseemto ticular quarter town.Thusthedisturbspreadoutovertheentire as foreign or reduced dismissed to a ingelements theveryatwitty anecdoteturn outto constitute he escapes again mosphere Freudinhabits-until intothelight ofthepiazza. Ironically, Freud'sdein earlier travel letters of rescription deliberately in to the Piazza Colonna the evenings turning might recast hisfinal escape intothepiazza in this anecdote as another return. surreptitious MaternalOriginsand Multiplicity The structure of "The Uncanny" this reproduces inadvertent return to the essentializedimage of woman. Following theItaliananecdote, forexamhimbacktwiceto the ple,Freud'sargument brings uncanniness ofthemother's thesame bodythrough textual ofexsequence:a disquieting multiplicity leads to a reference to the amplesof theuncanny maternal body,whereupon Freudends theparaandinserts a break inthetext.7 graph In thefirst Freudattributes theuncansequence, ninessof severalanecdotesabout dismembered limbs to "proximity to the castration complex" an denKastrationskomplex.' 'Annaherung He then turns to a seemingly unrelated exampleof what someconsider "themost ofall" 'die uncanny thing KronederUnheimlichkeit'-the terrifying notion of beingburiedalive. Marshaling theknowledge that has taught us" 'die Psycho"psycho-analysis Freudreveals behind this analysehatunsgelehrt,' unheimlich idea of livingentombment an earlier andheimlich desire for positive "intra-uterine exisless clinicallyin theGerman tence,"rendered as "Leben im Mutterleib" (244; 397). Although the recourse to theoretical knowledge has therhetorical effect ofcontainment, Freudhas also inadver-

as in the Italian town,to the site of tently returned, and theuncanny. dismemberment, castration, Freud returnsyet again to the mother's body only one page later,as he attemptsto conclude a "collection of examples [of the uncanny],which is noch unvollstandicertainlynot complete" 'gewiB3 gen Beispielsammlung[des Unheimlichen].'Again he defends himselfagainst the uncannyeffectsof to "psycho-analytic the maternalbody by turning experience" 'psychoanalytischenArbeit' and the defensivestrategy of a joke: ofexamples, which is cerTo conclude this collection I will relatean instance tainlynotcomplete, taken ifit does notrest from psycho-analytic experience; confiruponmere coincidence, itfurnishes a beautiful oftheuncanny. mation ofourtheory It often happens neurotic mendeclare feelthere is somethat that they This aboutthefemalegenital thing uncanny organs. is theentrance unheimlich place,however, to theformerHeim [home]of all human beings,to theplace whereeach one of us livedonce upona timeand in thebeginning. Thereis a jokingsaying that "Love is and whenever home-sickness"; a man dreamsof a andsaystohimself, placeora country whilehe is still "this to me,I've beenhere dreaming: placeis familiar we mayinterpret theplaceas beinghismothbefore," er's genitalsor herbody.In thiscase too,then, the is whatwas once heimisch, unheimlich the familiar; "un"["un-"] is thetoken ofrepression. (245) prefix Zum Schlusse dieser gewiBnoch unvollstandigen soll eine Erfahrung Beispielsammlung aus derpsyArbeit erwahnt choanalytischen werden, die, wenn sie nichtauf einem zufalligenZusammentreffen die schonsteBekraftigung beruht, unserer AuffasEs kommt sungdes Unheimlichen mitsichbringt. oft vor,daB neurotische Manner erklaren, das weibliche Genitalesei ihnenetwasUnheimliches. Dieses Unheimliche istaberderEingangzuraltenHeimatdes in derjedereinmal Menschenkindes, zurOrtlichkeit, und zuerstgeweilthat. "Liebe ist Heimweh,"beein Scherzwort, undwennderTraumer von hauptet einerOrtlichkeit oderLandschaft noch im Traume denkt: Das istmirbekannt, da warich schoneinmal, so darf die Deutung das Genitale oderdenLeib dafuir derMutter einsetzen. Das Unheimliche istalso auch in diesemFalle das ehemals Heimische, Altvertraute. Die Vorsilbe "un"an diesem Worte istaberdie Marke derVerdrangung. (398-99)

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In bothinstances, theproliferation oftheuncanny prompts Freud tolookfor closure atthevery siteof reproduction-the mother'sgenitals.He transforms that most anduncanny ofall unsettling thing intoa sourceof reaffirmed "a beautiful authority, confirmation of [his] theory." As severalcritics haveobserved, Freud veilsthefullsignifhowever, icanceofthemother's bodyin "TheUncanny." By on thematernal focusing as thelonged-for genitals butrepressed Heim,he avoidsthemoredisturbing specterof the pre-oedipalphallic mother, who threatens and of themother castration, as envied source of plenitudeand procreation (Ginsburg; M0ller;Rubin; Todd). Feminist of"The Sandman" readings emphasize theefforts of male characters to appropriate the maternal and divinesecretsof procreation. This theme is evident in thedemonic Nathaniel's rivalry father andCoppeliusengagein with God,thecreatoroflife, andin CoppolaandSpalanzani's battle overOlympia,their artificial creation. As Sarah Kofman points out,thesescenesrecast theprimal scene of procreation as an all-maleenterprise.8 Since thestructure ofthescenesis repeated in the narrator's andNathaniel's struggles tobring certain eventsto life in language,narration seemsto be linked(forsome male characters and authors) to envyof,desirefor, andidentification with thematernal function.9 Freud'seuphemistic reference to intrauterine life in the redundant phrase"once upon a timeand in thebeginning" might prompt further speculation abouttherelation between narration andtheuncanny maternal. As somescholars oftheuncanny haveargued, the desire to narrate arisesfrom theillusion of lostmaternal plenitude. The impossibility of returning to thebeginning, ofrestoring theimagined union with themother, is compounded bytheequalimpossibility ofrealizing an ending. Whilenarrative desire is thus denied final that satisfaction, deferral protects thedanger against ofcoming tooclose to satisfaca proximity tion, that threatens to shut downnarrativeand destroy the subject.10 Narrative survival on careful depends, then, navigation between extremes: theuncanniness ofuncontrolled desire and andtheuncanniness fertility oftheir annihilation. This cautiousitinerary in Freud'stext emerges as an oscillation between scientific andliterary dis-

courses. While recourse to psychoanalytictheory and clinical experienceseems to produce moments (howeverfleeting) of closure, the narrative register Freud adopts seems to evade closure by spawning more stories.The Italian adventure, forexample, is followed immediately by two more tales thatillustratethe uncanninessof repetition. The disturbing multiplicationof women thatdisorientsFreud in the Italian street is displaced by a reassuring multiplicationof narrative examples thatare designedto solidifyhis position.While thegenerative power of the maternalbody eludes Freud's control,the generativepower of narrative is harnessedto servepaternalmastery. In the stories thatspin offfromthe Italian tale, Freud shifts from thefirst to thethird person("one" 'man')-a rhetorical move that establishes the commongroundwithwhichhe is trying to gain his readers' agreement.The stories have much more "in common" 'gemein' withthe Italian adventure than just the "unintended recurrence" 'unbeabsichtigte Wiederkehr'and "feelingof helplessness" 'Gefuihlvon Hilflosigkeit'Freud underlines(237; 389). There is something else in the storiesthatexceeds theirlogical and rhetorical function as examples of repetition: So, forinstance, in a mist when, caught perhaps, one has lostone's wayin a mountain forest, every attempt to findthe marked or familiar pathmaybringone backagainandagainto one andthesamespot, which one can identify bysomeparticular landmark. Or one maywander aboutin a dark,strange room,looking forthedooror theelectric switch, and collide time after time with thesamepieceoffurniture-though it is true that MarkTwainsucceeded bywildexaggerationinturning this latter situation intosomething irrecomic. sistibly (237) ZumBeispiel, wenn mansichimHochwald, etwavom Nebel Uiberrascht, verirrt hatundnuntrotz allerBemUihungen, einenmarkierten oderbekannten Wegzu finden, wiederholt zu dereinen, durch einebestimmte Formation gekennzeichneten Stelle zurUickkommt. Oder wennman im unbekannten, dunkeln Zimmer wandert, um die TUir oder den Lichtschalter aufzusuchen unddabeizumxtenmal mit demselben MobelstUick eineSituation, zusammenstoBt, die MarkTwain

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allerdings durchgroteske in eine unUbertreibung widerstehlich komische umgewandelt hat. (389-90) The first storydemonstrates clearlythetendency of narrative to generatemultiplicity: the subject's disorientationis intensified by superfluousdetailsthe wandereris lost notjust in a forest butalso in a mist and on a mountain. Confusion is caused not by an absence but by an excess of signs: looking for the "marked or familiarpath," one is led to a mistaken but "particularlandmark" to which one involuntarily and repeatedlyreturns. That familiar but rejected landmarkserves the same functionas the painted women, who are marked with the familiar but rejected signs of female sexuality. Freud's relievedemergenceintothe lightand clarityof the piazza in his Italian adventure constitutes a recovery of the properly marked path leading away fromthe mystery, the uncontrollablefecundity,the sexuality of woman and into the light of reason,realmof thefather, end of the story. As each storyends, however, the nextfollows on its heels; the attemptedflight fromthe unfamiliar street or forest is reenactedfinally in an unheimlich domestic interior. This mock-heroicadventureof being lost in a "dark, strangeroom" retroactively diminishes the effectof the preceding examples. The sequence of shortnarratives ends notwithilluminationof the darkroom, which would provide a sense of closure, but instead with the defensive of a joke-the same strategy strategy Freud uses to transform the mother's genitals into a "beautiful confirmation of [his] theory."

and toward an anonymous "you,"he succeedsin off "palming hisowndeath" on thereader (541)." The confusion of the traveler, the wandering consciousness ofone notquiteat homewith one's or one's death, oneself, surroundings, migrates in thesestories from character to narrator to reader."2 Such rhetorical a characteristic drifting, effect of narrative, is one reason Freud'spersonal andliteraryanecdotesare nevermerely staticexamples. WhileFreudmaydeliberately multiply stories to reinforce a theoretical argument, the generative power andthepotential for contagion within narrativeexceeds his purposes, propelling himto the nexttale and thenext.The powerof storytelling draws on both maternal and the death fertility andFreud'scircular drive, in theItalwanderings ian townreflect the structure and experience of narrative as a convergence oforigins andends.13 Doublingand theDisintegration oftheSubject Narrative often appearsto be motivated bytheeffort tocondense andframe disruptive material, but once a narrative itthreatens begins, to proliferate without stopping, that generating else something beyondstabilizingstructures and conceptsthat constitutes itsirreducible literariness. One of the basic stabilizingconcepts simultaneously supported andthreatened bynarrative is thenarrator's autonomous In "The Uncanny" subjectivity. Freud doubleshimself defensively in his personal anecdotes,splitting intocontrolling narrator andhelpless protagonist. theessay's theoretical However, argument asserts that doubling (like storytelling) has a tendency to betrayits initialpurposeand often transforms a positive function intoa negative effect. The doubleas an immortal partoftheself thattranscends deathevolvesintothedouble as a threatening ghost, ofdeath. harbinger As Cixousobserves, Freud'slengthy discussion oftheuncanny ofthedoubleis overphenomenon crowdedwithexamples,theories, and theorists. Addedtothat already cumbersome ofmaterial array arethree anecdotes about one'sdouble encountering that inthemarginal appear ofa footnote. territory
Sincetheuncanny effect ofa "double"also belongs to thissamegroup[ofoccurrences that maycall up the

Wandering, Contamination, Dissemination


Among the instancesof uncannyrepetition thatfollow these tales, Freud includes thehypothetical example of a traveler's superstitiousresponse to the recurrenceof the number sixty-twoon his hotelroom or train-compartment door (238; 390). In these additional examples, repetition is tied not to fertile multiplicity butto the deathdrive,more specifically,according to Cixous, to Freud's anxiety about his own death.Cixous argues thatin the narrativesleightof hand by whichFreud directsa prophetic warningaway fromthe "reprievedauthor"

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primitive beliefin theomnipotence ofthoughts] itis interesting to observewhattheeffect is of meeting one's own image unbiddenand unexpected. Ernst first occasionhe was nota little startled whenhe realized that thefacebefore himwas hisown.The second time he formed a very unfavourable aboutthe opinion supposed stranger who enteredthe omnibus,and thought "Whata shabby-looking school-master that manis whois getting in!"-I can report a similar adI was sitting venture. alonein mywagon-lit compartment when a more than violent usually joltofthetrain swung backthedooroftheadjoining washing-cabinet, and an elderly in a dressing-gown gentleman and a in leavingthe travelling cap came in. I assumedthat washing-cabinet, which laybetween thetwocompartments, he hadtaken thewrong direction andcomeinto mycompartment bymistake. Jumping up with theintention of putting himright, I at once realizedto my theintruder dismay that was nothing butmyownreflection in thelooking-glass on theopen door.I can still I thoroughly recollect that disliked hisappearance. (248) Da auch das Unheimliche des Doppelgangers von dieser es interessant, Gattung die Wirkung ist,wird zu wennunseinmaldas Bild dereigenen erfahren, Personlichkeit ungerufen undunvermutet entgegentritt. E. Mach berichtet zwei solcherBeobachtungen.... Er erschrak das eineMal nicht wenig, als ererkannte, daB das geseheneGesicht das eigenesei, das andere Mal fallte er ein sehrunguinstiges Urteil uiber denanscheinend derin seinenOmnibus Fremden, einstieg, "Was steigt dochda fur einherabgekommener Schulmeister ein."-Ich kannein ahnliches Abenteuer erzahlen:Ich saBalleinimAbteil des Schlafwagens, als bei einemheftigeren RuckderFahrtbewegung die zur anstoBenden Toilette Turaufging fuhrende undeinalterer Herrim Schlafrock, die Reisemutzeauf dem bei mireintrat. Kopfe, Ich nahm an,daB er sichbeim Verlassen des zwischenzwei Abteilen befindlichen in derRichtung Kabinetts geirrt hatte undfalschlich in meinAbteilgekommen war,sprangauf,um ihn erkannte aufzuklaren, aberbaldverdutzt, daBderEinmeineigenes,vomSpiegel in derVerbindringling dungstuir entworfenes Bildwar. IchweiBnoch, daBmir die Erscheinung gruindlich miBfallen hatte. (402-03) Freud's own personalanecdote is offered merelyas a "similar adventure"to the two already related,a superfluousstorythatFreud seems compelled to
Mach has related two such observations.... On the

tell.As intheItalian an ironic tale,Freud maintains distance from his"adventure," butthesubject here is not justlostin unfamiliar territory; he is lostand unfamiliar to himself. While structural doubling enables the writer to distancehimself from the thesubject story's events, whois surprised byhis owndoubleexperiences thevulnerability of selfalienation.Mladen Dolar's Lacanian readingof thisencounter emphasizes itsrestaging of mirrorphasemeconnaissance: "WhenI recognize myself inthemirror itis already toolate.There is a split: I cannotrecognizemyself and at thesame timebe one withmyself"(12). For Dolar, Freud's encounter withhis mirror imageis an "intrusion of thereal"that can be relieved onlybyreentering the symbolic (14). In thestory ofFreud's as intheprevious double, thesetting is domestic, examples, buttheintimate spaceofbedroom andwashroom is evenmore condensed than thesmallhousesorthedark room. The train is a heimlich compartment place wherethe traveler is installedin comfort and privacy, but Freuddescribes thisminiature dwelling (enclosed and complete like a neatlittlestory) as partof a a wordthat "Schlafwagen," evokessleep,dreams, andthus theloss ofcontrol. In translating "Schlafwagen"as theFrench"wagon-lit" rather thanan English equivalent, Strachey represents theimage ofa bed hurtling through spaceon therailsandrestoresan inherent Unheimlichkeit to thefamiliar cozinessofthetrain compartment. In thisincident Freudhas moved beyond theuncanniness ofbeing on foreign he is on no ground ground; atall. All three anecdotes ofthedoublenarrate thedisloss of the familiar turbing groundof the self. Freud's initial failure torecognize hisreflection derivesfrom a mental imageof himself as vigorous andcertain, no resemblance bearing to thisbefuddledoldmanwhoappears lost.Freud up "[jlump[s] with theintention ofputting himright," ofrestoring clarity and designating each to his own and proper place.Butsincethedrama is played outina moving none of its actorscan be secured. train, This anecdote, liketheothers, concludes with the disturbing thattheoutsider discovery is always already within, thatthe uncanny"stranger" or "intruder" is theself.Nevertheless, theotheris in itsseparate ghettoized quarter orcompartment

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tobe closelyentangled with becauseitis perceived anddeath. sexuality mimetic narAs thedoubleoflivedexperience, rative echoes birth, death,and thewandering belife.Indeed, mimesis is tween them that constitutes in an a "mortal enablessurvival supplement" that existence that "always already implies death" (Kofman 137). The proliferation ofFreud'sdouble ofhuman stories is a reminder that accounts experienceare alwaysaddedon. Theyprovide an illusion of mastery thatmomentarily obscuresthe imminenceand immanenceof death. Kofman warns, however, that thedouble"cannot butevoke invaintoforget .. . theindissoluble what mantries as the bond betweenlife and death"(148). Just a death to doubleevolvesfrom protection against narrative death'semissary, doublingof life as a ofprotection also unleashes a threat. Ficmethod as Cixousputsit,"is a secretion of death, an tion, ofnonrepresentation" anticipation (548). and ReadingFictions Writing haveargued that Some critics theuncanny double in thetrain Freudencounters episode(and at other times hislifeinvarious throughout guises)is hisdeniedcreative self(Rubin).In what or literary Mark Kanzerclassifies as ambivalent Freud friendships, first admired acknowledges literary figures suchas Arthur RomainRolland,and Thomas Schnitzler, Mann as his uncanny doublesand then insists on their from difference himself.'4 He projects hisown imaginative creativity ontotheseliterary doubles butenvies their tocreate narrative capacity thehypnotic hisscience effects that hasrenounced (Kanzer Freudwantsto enjoythewriter's 291). Although "poetic license"'Freiheiten,' heremains amdeeply bivalent aboutventuring intothealienterritory of andnarration aesthetics, literature, (251; 406). after of his mortal thestory Shortly confining doubleto a footnote, for Freudexpresses example, a desireto segregate literature to a "separate discussion" 'gesonderte Betrachtung' (249; 404). A "morefertile" 'reichhaltiger' province of theunthan reallife, literature's andimagicanny "stories nativeproductions" 'Phantasie[und] Dichtung' an overabundance provide ofexamples that "open thedoorto doubts"'dem Zweifeldas Torbffnen'

and force him to keep revising his theory (247; 401). Although Freud cannot contain the literarihis text,he triesto ness thathas spread throughout impose further structures, distinctions,divisions; forinstance,he separates out those literary genres thatdo produceuncannyeffects from those(such as fairy tales) thatdo not.15The flawin thistaxonomy is the same one thatblinds Freud to the literariness of Hoffmann'sstory:a reluctanceto acknowledge thatthe writing and readingof any narrative is potentiallyan uncannyexperience and thatuncanniness stemsfroma reader's encounter witha story's and rhetorical linguisticstructures notjust effects, from its contents and context. Freud's encounterwith literaryuncanniness is vividlyrevealedin an interpolated narrative thatrelates his own experienceas a readerof fiction: In themiddleoftheisolationof war-time a number of theEnglishStrand Magazine fellintomyhands; I read somewhat redundant and,amongother matter, a story abouta young married couplewhomoveinto a furnished house in which thereis a curiously of crocodileson it. Toshapedtable withcarvings wardsevening an intolerable and very smell specific begins to pervade the house; they stumbleover in thedark;they seemto see a vagueform something overthestairs-in short, gliding we are givento understand that thepresence ofthetablecausesghostly crocodilesto hauntthe place, or thatthe wooden monsters cometolifeinthedark, or something ofthe sort.It was a naive enoughstory, but theuncanny itproduced feeling was quiteremarkable.(244-45) in derAbsperrung Mitten des Weltkrieges kameine Nummer des englischen Magazins"Strand" in meine Hande,in derich unter anderen ziemlich uiberfluissigenProduktionen eine Erzahlung las, wie einjunges Paar eine moblierte Wohnung bezieht,in der sich ein seltsamgeformter Tisch mitholzgeschnitzten Krokodilen befindet. GegenAbendpflegt sichdann ein unertraglicher, in der charakteristischer Gestank zu verbreiten, man stolpert im Dunkeln Wohnung uiber irgend etwas,manglaubtzu sehen,wie etwas Undefinierbares die Treppehuscht, uiber kurz,man soll erraten, daB infolgeder Anwesenheit dieses Tischesgespenstische im Hause spuken, Krokodile oderdaBdie h6lzernen Scheusaleim Dunkeln Leben bekommen oderetwasAhnliches. Es wareine recht

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unheimliche aberihre einfaltige Geschichte, Wirkung verspuirte manals ganzhervorragend.'6 (398) Even as Freud acknowledges the story's"quite reto surmount markable" effecton him, he attempts his susceptibility, dismissing the storyas "naive" materialas "redundant."As a and the surrounding bereader he has been beguiled into a momentary lief in animismor in the omnipotenceof thoughts, but as a narrator he denies the story'spower with the contemptuous phrase "or something of the sort,"which masks the mysterioussomethingthat hauntsthis(perhapsall) fiction. To control his encounter with that "something more besides" 'noch anderes' evoked by literature (249; 404), Freud feels compelled, as Hertz might say, to make a storyout of it. He adds to his presentationof the Strand storya narrative framethat describes the circumstances in which he read the tale-a self-doubling thatextendsbeyond narrator and protagonistto include writerand reader. The uncanniness of the storyderives not just fromits content-fromthe idea of wooden crocodiles coming to life in the dark-but also fromits dramatization of the uncanniness of writingand reading. Freud dismissively explains that this story "fell into [his] hands,"minimizingits importance, yetit bears a remarkableresemblanceto the othernarratives Freud has interpolatedin "The Uncanny": a domestic space is renderedunfamiliar, its interior invaded by something primitiveand abject that bears the marksof sexualityand death. Justas the couple's search fora heimlichdomestic enclosure ironically leads to isolation and vulnerability, Freud seeks in the Stranda temporary respitefrom "the isolation of war-time," which presumablyhas and distress.The put him in a stateof vulnerability effectsof the war are introduced in the opening pages of "The Uncanny,"where Freud elliptically blames the paucity of scholarly referencesin his of "the times in which we essay on the difficulties live" 'in der Zeit' (220; 370)-times of war,haunted by danger and death. Like the Italian prostitutes, these threats are kept at a distance by euphemismand indirection. AlthoughFreud is confident thathe can map the Strand story's significant landmarks,the territory thatremainsunchartedby Freud's summaryis the

evocation of sexuality anddeathandofthe story's As inhisdiscustiesthat bindthem to storytelling. sionof "The Sandman," Freudoverlooks thenarrativeelements thatself-reflexively pointto the uncanninessof literature and its effecton the reader. This"naive"story aboutwooden crocodiles that cometo lifeis also abouttheproliferation of and theways storiescan haunttheir storytelling readers orlisteners. Freud's summary omitstheopeningscene of in whichthe wifeapproaches the Strandstory, thehouse forthefirst timeand remembers halftalesshehas read:"[t]hat forgotten sound clanging thedepths of mysubcon[ofthegate]drewfrom scious self some old storiesof prisondoorsand turnkeys" (Moberly183).'7Once thecoupleis installedin thehouse,thecook and maidtell"silly servants' tales"aboutmysterious creatures repeattheir edlyinvading sleeping quarters (195). Freud's retelling leaves outtheseinternal talesas well as thoseofthevisiting friend whoseyearsofforeign travel have madehiman "inexhaustible" and enraconteur tertaining (189). When thisvisitoris provoked bythesmellofthecrocodiles to recount a gruesomedeathhe witnessed in New Guinea, thewifeis again reminded of "just suchan incidentin a book [she] once read" (191). Just as the wife in the Strand storyis hauntedby textual of forgotten memories or outmoded Freud genres, is haunted bya "naive"talewhoseeffects he cannotdismiss.The visiting friend and theservants havein common a liminalstatus-theyare in the house but not of the family;theyrepresent an alien otherness thehome.Like Freud, inhabiting thecoupledismisses theseoutsiders' talesof sexualityand death,drawing a defensive and isolating domesticcircle tightly aroundthemselves. However, theyultimately discoverthattheother whobrings sexuality and deathintothehomehas always alreadybeen inside,partof thehome's In the Strand storythis metaphor furniture. is inscribedliterally:the crocodile table defines Heimlichkeit byrepresenting itsopposite andthen it from within. Like manyof thedictiodisrupts citations with which nary Freud'sessayopens,the confirms thattheboundary story betweeninside and outside cannot holdyetcannot be obliterated: no enclosure can offer absolute protection against

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can proceed to penetrate invasion,and no effort without risk(Engle 112). The complexrelation betweeninsideand outfamiliar andunfamiliar andforeign, side,domestic oftheuncanny nature reflects boththeparadoxical abouttheorigins of thespeaking and something a Lacanianpersubject andof narration. Bringing to bearon theseissues,JoanCopjec despective as the scribestheprocessof subjectconstruction rejection of our "nonselves"and thesubsequent is re"inclusionwithinourselves"of whatever constitutive jected (34). Lacan calls that negation a term the"extimate," Copjec (following Jacquesthat Alain Miller) uses to designatesomething "in us" is "notus" (35). Analogously, narthough as a supplementary rative might be saidto function and bothsustains alienatessubjects extimate that their lifestories. insideandoutside

of literature Criticswho exploretheuncanniness to thisimpossible and languagereturn repeatedly stands bepromise, arguing that "stories areall that of identity" tween us and theunraveling (Jacobus the 272); that rhetoric is an "artofdefense" against andthedeath ofourcreative "catastrophe origins" in "'turn[ing] thetables' drive (Bloom98, 97); that thewriter can "creon ... thelureof narcissism" thefear ofdeath atively [convert] (andevil)associofhisliterary atedwith theuncanny intothesource art" (Hutch 383); or thatwriters, readers,and can "makea narrative homeof speaking subjects homelessness" (Kimball 529). thereal"(Copjec 28), Yetas a "rampart against with languageis riddled fault lines,and narrative can provide no stable resting place. SamuelWeber for that thestructure ofrepetition argues, example, thatshapesour "necessary fictions" mustfollow in which the"lawsofarticulation repetition [is] ... neverentirely reducible"to an ultimate referent ofLanguage Lost in theUncanniness (1132). Confronting thisessential uncanniness of his reading language, philosophicalinquiryhighlights the in whichFreudsituates The lifestory the strangeness oflanguage adventure suggeststhathe seeks relieffrom acquisition (Cavell),clinical experience records thechild'spotentially esof wartimeviolence in the banalityand threat to written of a popularliterary relation redundancy magazine.The tranged symbols (Denis), and a blankmental analysiselaborates on theuncanniness of Strandissue provokes wandering literary advent of narrative. for reading MaryJacobus, example, conthat leavesFreudopento theunexpected As in the Italian town and in the templates the"hysterical ofreading the uncanny. a firstprocess" Freudis geographically but personnarrative, an experience thatrequires the wagon-lit, estranged, in thisinstance his alienation stems from wander- reader to substitute a "bodily figure" (thenarrator) ingthrough theterritory ofa language that is famil- for on thepage (246). Another thewords critic deiar yetforeign. of Freud'saccountof his reading scribeshow a poem mayappearto "becomethe ofnarrative thestory as a parable as can be reanimated couldbe taken that poet'sbody, something only the uncanny of wandering aroundin a transfusion oflifefrom thereader, thereexperience through someone else's words, ofbeingled byunconscious animation ofthewords onthepage"(Hopkins 38).18 desiresand fearsthat undermine soberjudgment. Animism-which finds itsrhetorical expression In a time lit- inapostrophe-is ofuncertainty Freudmayderive from thebasisofnarration, for itgives a writer's controland a reader's bodily form tothedisembodied. erarynarrative Andanimation debutsuchengagement pleasure, ultimately betrays fines thework bothof thewriter, whoseimaginahis wishesand givesvoice to theanxieties he had tivecreativity whatis notthere, animates and of hopedto silence. thereader, who animates thefigure and voice of In "The Uncanny" to limit Freudattempts that thenarrator. and ghost Ghostwriter reader particitothemanipulations betrayal ofa fiction writer who pate in the same magical procedure:"the contricks hisunsuspecting audienceintoadopting sucretization a signofwhat is ofa missing presence, beliefs perstitious (250; 405). Butin a more general there bynotbeingthere" (Garber 129). sense, bothwriter and readerare betrayed by a Thereis a pricetopay,however, for engaging in symbolic order that seemstopromise somedefense suchrhetorical magic.Freudmayreduce literature againstthe humanrealitiesof desireand death. to thestatus of an illustration (of thelaws of the

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in in Gradivaorofcastration anxiety unconscious threat oftheword buttheuncanny "TheSandman"), the itlurking inBeyond Hertz finds alwaysreturns. to which themes behindother PleasurePrinciple about (suchas anxiety prominence Freud givesmore is an unAntecedent to suchthemes originality). an "irreducible inlanguage, figurasomething canny itincapable ofgrasping "first tiveness" that renders a as scientist 120). Writing (Hertz121, principles" Freud wish might Principle, inBeyond thePleasure theobstacleof "figurative language." to transcend emphasize theorists, on thecontrary, Manyliterary theabyss.One "funcas a shieldagainst figuration anxis managing argues, tion offiguration," Jacobus like some "fungoid may multiply iety; figures or meaning, butfiresistant to anyorder growth" is better than (246). none" nally "anyfiguration thehusband taking The Strandstory endswith thetablefrom thehouse, bums he removes control; In writing "The Unit, and restoresnormalcy. hisown hisdesireto restore Freudreveals canny," and supported butthis desire is both housetoorder, Led withnarrative. by his engagement frustrated forvividillustraintoaesthetics byhispredilection Freudis overwhelmed by tivemyths and stories, He otherness. excess,by itsuntamable literature's makeshis escape at theend of theessaybyrefertextwhere theuncanny to another ringthereader of "silence,solitudeand darkness ... remainder point of [is] discussed froma psycho-analytic view"'[d]ie psychoanalytische Forschung hatsich an anderer mit[Einsamkeit, Stille, undDunkelheit] Stelleauseinandergesetzt' those (252; 408). Butfor whoapproach from a literary point suchmysteries is no exitfrom theuncanny. All that of view, there can be done is to make a storyout of them-a for aboutuncanny narratives. example, story,

Notes
I wishto thank many friends, colleagues, and students fortheir of thisproject, support including Paul Doherty, AnneFerry, David Ferry, AnneFleche, Judith Gurewich, Humphrey Morris, Kristin Morrison, Frances Restuccia, William Richardson, Kal-

Von Hendy, Andrew Susan Suleiman, pana Seshadri-Crooks, andinvaluable help andJudith Wilt.Fortheir generous support to CharlesBernheimer, with revisions ofthisessay,mythanks RosemarieBodenheimer, Adele Dalsimer,JamesDalsimer, Peter andJennie SusanFairfield, Steven Lydenberg, Schwenger, a generous felfaculty Skerl.The essay was completed under it lowship provided byBostonCollege.I couldnothavewritten ofthework ofNeilHertz. without theinspiration see 'For a useful overviewof the field of narratology, on psychoMitchell; Martin. Foressaysfocused more narrowly see Smithand Morris.Coste has coanalysisand narration, ofliterariness as thetext's gently elaborated theelusive concept domikindofreading that challenges solicitation ofa particular oftimeand nant discursive conventions and theirreversibility and aesthetic and logic;that unleashes theunconscious, affect, an "active polysemy" erotic pleasure (83-96); andthat through confers evenon themeaningless meaning (91). of Freud's"The Uncanny" follow 2Manyliterary readings to restore theliterary qualities Cixousand Hertzin attempting of Hoffmann's and in identifying thoseneglected aspects story ofuncanniness as additional sources Wright). (see M0ller; 3In an analysis ofMelville's Billy Budd, Johnson playson the "all multiple meanings ofplotandfall to speculate that perhaps stories recount existence thesubvernecessarily bytheir very sionofthefather, oforder, ofexofthegods,ofconsciousness, orof meaning" narratives pectations, (88). WhenFreudenlists histheory, to illustrate he invites that subversion. then, theory's 4Bhabha("Articulating," "DissemiNation," and "World"); haveexplored thepolitical Engle;and Kristeva, amongothers, between and theuncanny. aspectsof therelation foreignness I do notdiscussthepolitical Because of space constraints unhere. canny ingenerating 5On theroleofthis primal linguistic instability narrative, see Hertz; Kimball. 6One criticarguesthatthe Italian anecdoteinadvertently ofthefemale stagestheuncanny return figures Freudrepresses in his analysisof "The Sandman"(Ginsburg); another finds inthemany suchfigures callsup allusions Freud lurking literary other toillustrate themes Freud Although uncanny (McCaffrey). that theuncanny is produced notbya parultimately proposes butbyrepetition ticular recurrent content critics beitself, many lievethat in terms of theItalian tale"criesoutforinterpretation a repressed wish"(Engle 113). 7I have discovered thatmyreading of therelation between theItalystory andthesubsequent returns to themother's body to Ginsburg's in many corresponds interpretation ways. 8In thenameSpalanzani, Kofman sees a possibleallusionto an Italianbiologist whoexperimented with artificial inseminainHoffmann's tion time. 9As bothTodd and M0llerobserve, of the theuncanniness maternal desire genitals derives less from themale'srepressed to reclaim that homethanfrom thedesireto be themother, to be female. loss as an initiator of narrative, '0On maternal see Sprengon thethreat ofannihilation, see Copjec's and Dolar's nether; Lacaniananalyses oftheuncanny.

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where Freudusesthe 1'This point is less obviousin German, impersonal "one" 'man' or "who" 'wer,' notthemoredirect or the moreinclusive"we" of Stra"you" Cixous mentions chey'stranslation. oftheuncanny in literary criticism often asso'2Applications with See McNeilon Elizciatenarrative geographic wandering. in theworldand in the abethBishop's"deliberate wandering" of thesurrealists, text(420), Fosteron theurbanwanderings ofthecosmopolitan on theontological and Kristeva wandering foreigner. Brooks's theory of narrative 13Peter (Reading),developed from Freud's Beyond thePleasurePrinciple, follows thepattern of thisconvergence of beginnings and ends. On therelation see Dolar. andthedeath among narration, dissemination, drive, 14Cixous sees Hoffmann as a particularly haunting literary Freud to produce a kindof doublewhoposthumously "incite[s] ofhisown(540). fiction" offairy Freud's effect 15Zipes counters denialoftheuncanny that act ofreading a fairy taleis an unthe"very tales,arguing in that from therestriccanny itseparates thereader experience an estrangement that can be both"frightening tionsofreality," and comforting" (309). 16The story Freud summarizes is "Inexplicable," byL. G. Moto Phillip foralerting berly (1917). I am grateful me McCaffrey ofthestory inStrange tothereprinting Tales theStrand. from ofpopular 17Critics forms haveidentified certain outmoded literature as carrying ofan uncanny oftherethethreat return pressed (see Foster; Goodwin; Jacobus; Webber). 18According to Schwenger, in thepractice of transformations reading oftheprocess undermine thefamiliarity andexposeits inherent uncanniness.

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