The Uncanny

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Freud was the first Freudian literary critic. In his famous essay, “The Uncanny,” he tries to make sense of a feeling of disease that, he argues, reflects a partial awareness of repressed fantasies and fears.He does this in part through an interpretation of E. T. A. Hoffman’s story, “The Sandman.”

“The Uncanny” is frequently used to discuss Gothic literature because, as much as any genre, the Gothic asks us to confront the emergence of released — rather than repressed — fantasies and fears.