The unconcept : the Freudian uncanny in late-twentieth-century theory / Anneleen Masschelein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Masschelein, Anneleen, 1971-

Series:

SUNY series, insinuations.

SUNY series, insinuations : philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics, Modern--20th century.

Aesthetics, Modern.

Fantastic, The.

Uncanny, The (Psychoanalysis).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 229 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Unconcept is the first genealogy of the concept of the Freudian uncanny, tracing the development, paradoxes and movements of this negative concept through various fields and disciplines from psychoanalysis, literary theory and philosophy to film studies, genre studies, sociology, religion, architecture theory, and contemporary art. Anneleen Masschelein explores the vagaries of this 'unconcept' in the twentieth century, beginning with Freud's seminal essay 'The Uncanny,' through a period of conceptual latency, leading to the first real conceptualizations in the 1970s and then on to the present dissemination of the uncanny to exotic fields such as hauntology, the study of ghosts, robotics and artificial intelligence. She unearths new material on the uncanny from the English, French and German traditions, and sheds light on the specific status of the concept in contemporary theory and practice in the humanities. This essential reference book for researchers and students of the uncanny is written in an accessible style. Through the lens of the uncanny, the familiar contours of the intellectual history of the twentieth century appear in a new and exciting light.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Introduction

1.1.A Genealogy of the Uncanny

1.2.Different Stages in the Conceptualization of the Uncanny

1.3.The Uncanny as Unconcept

1.4.A Functionalist-Discursive Perspective

1.5.(Re)Constructing a Map of Conceptualizations

ch. 2 The Position of the Uncanny in Freud's Oeuvre

2.1.Follow the Index?

2.2.The Uncanny as a Symptom in Daily life and Pathology

2.3.From Compulsion to Taboo: The Surmounted Phylogenetic Origin of the Uncanny

2.4.The Uncanny and Theoretical Revisions

2.5.The Uncanny and Anxiety

I

2.6.The Uncanny: A Psychoanalytic Concept?

ch. 3 Preliminaries to Concept Formation

3.1.Further Explorations of the Uncanny

3.2.The Uncanny and Anxiety

II

3.3.The Uncanny and Genre Studies

3.4.The Uncanny as Aesthetic Category: Toward a Theory of the Uncanny

ch. 4 Tying the Knot: The Conceptualization of the Uncanny

4.1.An Era of Transcontinental Conceptualizations

4.2.Two Poetics: Todorov and Cixous

4.3.Poetical Structuralism: Todorov's The Fantastic

4.3.1.The Uncanny and the Fantastic

4.3.2.The Fantastic and Psychoanalysis

4.3.3.Birth and Death of the Fantastic

4.3.4.Transformations of the Fantastic

4.4.Chasing Freud's Chase: Cixous's "Fiction and its Phantoms"

4.4.1."The Uncanny" as Missing Link

4.4.2."Fiction and its Phantoms" as Quest in the Labyrinth

4.4.3.Pull the Strings

4.4.4.Cixous and Derrida: The Uncanny as a Theory of Fiction

ch. 5 The Uncanny: A Late Twentieth-Century Concept

5.1.The Canonization of the Uncanny

5.2.A Tradition of Rereadings of "The Uncanny"

5.3.The Dissemination of the Uncanny

5.3.1.The Postromantic/Aesthetic Tradition

5.3.2.The Unhomely and Existential and Political Alienation

5.3.3.Hauntology

5.4.The Uncanny and Contemporary Culture

ch. 6 Concluding Remarks.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438435558

143843555X

9781441696809

1441696806

OCLC:

733048530