"'One of the surest devices for producing slightly uncanny effects through story-telling,' writes Jentsch, 'is to leave the reader wondering whether a particular figure is a real person or an automaton, and to do so in such a way that his attention is not focused directly on the uncertainty, lest he should be prompted to examine and settle the matter at once, for in this way, as we have said, the special emotional effect can easily be dissipated.'" (135)
Section II of Freud's The Uncanny really stood out to me in terms of the way that he discussed some popular conventions of the uncanny effects, obviously using Hoffman's story as a way to explore how a writer may or may not employ the uses of the uncanny to create a sense of disturbance with the reader that is not always immediately noticeable. One particular passage that caught my interest comes after Freud's summary of The Sand-Man when he says "we recall that children make no sharp distinction between the animate and the inanimate, and that they are especially fond of treating their dolls as if they were alive." (141) I can remember being a kid and believing that the minute I walked out of my bedroom, my stuffed animals would come to life and talk to each other. I wasn't necessarily afraid of this happening, but I can remember always wishing it would. However, now as an adult, thinking about inanimate objects coming to life does obviously provoke a sense of the uncanny for me personally, but I suppose that's all thanks to the horror genre, which as we know relies heavily on the uncanny and using that to its full advantage. I think with Jentsch's explanation, though, in terms of collages especially, the use of the uncanny will be really effective at provoking responses from readers simply because the inherent meaning of something isn't laid out in black and white. And of course each reader may interpret something differently, but that's to be expected. It's the sense of the uncanny that can't be figured out right away that matters... Maybe not in trying to figure out whether or not a particular object is real or an automaton, but in other subtle ways where the reader's attention is captured by that sense of a disturbance, or that 'unhomely' feeling.
Section II of Freud's The Uncanny really stood out to me in terms of the way that he discussed some popular conventions of the uncanny effects, obviously using Hoffman's story as a way to explore how a writer may or may not employ the uses of the uncanny to create a sense of disturbance with the reader that is not always immediately noticeable. One particular passage that caught my interest comes after Freud's summary of The Sand-Man when he says "we recall that children make no sharp distinction between the animate and the inanimate, and that they are especially fond of treating their dolls as if they were alive." (141) I can remember being a kid and believing that the minute I walked out of my bedroom, my stuffed animals would come to life and talk to each other. I wasn't necessarily afraid of this happening, but I can remember always wishing it would. However, now as an adult, thinking about inanimate objects coming to life does obviously provoke a sense of the uncanny for me personally, but I suppose that's all thanks to the horror genre, which as we know relies heavily on the uncanny and using that to its full advantage. I think with Jentsch's explanation, though, in terms of collages especially, the use of the uncanny will be really effective at provoking responses from readers simply because the inherent meaning of something isn't laid out in black and white. And of course each reader may interpret something differently, but that's to be expected. It's the sense of the uncanny that can't be figured out right away that matters... Maybe not in trying to figure out whether or not a particular object is real or an automaton, but in other subtle ways where the reader's attention is captured by that sense of a disturbance, or that 'unhomely' feeling.
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