German Literature, Critical Thought and New Media 1900-1945 (403-0-1)
Topic
The Uncanny (Unheimlich) in Theory and Literature
Instructors
Samuel Weber
847/491-8296
Kresge Hall, Room 3335
Office Hours: By email appointment
Meeting Info
Online: Mon 1:00PM - 3:50PM
Overview of class
"Uncanny" is the English word generally used to translate the German "Unheimlich," a category theorized first by Ernst Jentsch, then by Freud, in an essay of that name (1919), and in a different way taken up by Heidegger in the late 1920s and 30s, and finally also by Derrida. It competes with the more traditional notion of "alienation" as a categorization of contemporary life, at least in the "West" (or if you prefer "Global North"). What is explicit in the German word but not in the English is the reference to the "home". What however distinguishes the notion of the Unheimlich from previous theories of alienation or estrangement is that the experience no longer can be framed within the mutually exclusive polarity of domestic vs foreign, since the Unheimlich turns out to be most at home in the home, its strangeness reveals itself to be strangely familiar. Formulated in this way, literature emerges as a privileged medium of the Uncanny.
In this course, we will retrace its emergence of a theory of the Uncanny in the texts of Freud and Heidegger, each of which reserve a special place for literature as a privileged setting for this "apparition": for Freud the story by E. Th. A. Hoffmann, "The Sandman;" for Heidegger Sophocles' tragedy, Antigone. If these ¨classical¨ articulations of the uncanny in literature can be understood as a challenge to traditional Western notions of self-identity, we will look at some responses to this challenge in texts as diverse as The Odyssey (books 23 k& 24), Oedipus at Colonus, several shorter "stories" by Kafka ("Cares of a Housefather," "The Silence of the Sirens") and finally two "science fiction" stories adapted for radio: "Child's Play" by William Tenn (1948-51) and Robert A. Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth" (1947).
Registration Requirements
Reading knowledge of German, although desirable, is not required.
Class Materials (Required)
Freud, "The Uncanny," "Inhibition, Symptom, Anxiety"
Heidegger, Hölderlin's Poem The Ister, (Part II)
Sophocles, Theban Plays (Oedipus Tyrannos, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus)
E. Th. A. Hoffmann, "The Sandman"
Kafka, "The Cares of a Family Man," "The Silence of the Sirens"
William Tenn, "Child's Play" (story and radio play adapted by G. Lefferts)
Robert A. Heinlein, "The Green Hills of Earth"
Class Notes
The course will be on ZOOM. A final paper and brief class presentations will account for 70% of the grade, class participation and regular attendance for the remaining 30%.