BLOG REFLECTION: DEAD OF NIGHT - PLEASE COMMENT BY 9 AM TUES SEPT 3

We've looked at Dead of Night as our first example of the Uncanny in art for a number of issues it raises:
-- The role of dreaming--the nightmare in particular--as exemplary experience of the Uncanny
-- The peculiar compulsion to narrate the uncanny incident, and the enthrallment of the audience
-- The reality status of the uncanny incident: Within the rules of the fiction, do we accept the supernatural event, or explain it as a psychological phenomenon?
-- The contribution of plot structure and style of narration/depiction to the uncanny effect

To prepare for next week's discussion, please post a comment below on the uncanny in Dead of Night.
You should review your notes first and focus on a key topic that you find promising in understanding how the film achieves its effects. You may want to consult your own sense of the uncanny, and your recollections of other films, tales, or artworks that struck you as uncanny, for comparison and contrast.

AS3381A The Uncanny in Literature, Film, and Art - Fall 2013 - Corcoran College of Art and Design

 

The world becomes uncanny when it is no longer perceived as simple substance, but also as shadow,

 a sign of the existence of a world beyond itself, which it is nevertheless unable fully to disclose.

--Paul Coates, The Gorgon’s Gaze: German Cinema, Expressionism, and the Image of Horror

The experience--or sensation?--or concept?--of the Uncanny has been the subject of debates in criticism since the early days of Romanticism: Is it just a physical response to something creepy, un-expected, or inexplicable? Is it something more exalted, a variation on the Sublime, or the artistic trace of an attempt to represent what can never be represented? To understand how these questions moved from the periphery to the center of ideas about modern art, we will explore Freud’s influential theory of the Uncanny, as well as other attempts to explain the lure of the fantastic and supernatural in art. To trace some of the forms of the Uncanny, we will look into prominent tropes of the uncanny in film and literature—haunted houses, doubles, and ghosts—in examples such as: Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher and other tales; E. T. A. Hoffmann, The Sandman; Carl Dreyer, Vampyr; Jacques Tourneur, Cat People.

Course Objectives:

§ To comprehend the historical development of the aesthetic category of the Uncanny, particularly in relation to the Sublime and to psychoanalytic theories of art and culture.

§ To evaluate the relevance of the concept of the Uncanny to modern and contemporary aesthetics, art, and culture, through examination of key examples.

§ To enhance capacities for critical analysis of film, literature, visual art, and critical theory through investigation of key examples, testing your own developing ideas.

All readings listed on the schedule will be available online at the course Blackboard site at:  https://corcoran.blackboard.com/, along with the syllabus, assignments, and other important and useful information. We can also use the Blackboard page to submit assignments, share resources, and send notices or comments to the whole group.