The subject of the uncanny

Freud's theory of "the uncanny" dates back to post -World War 1, and relates to the idea that the things people find fear in are linked to those that have some form of familiarity. The theory is concerned with what we perceive to be frightening with against what we are familiar with, and the similarity when the two are mixed together.

The subject of "the uncanny" is referred to within psychoanalytic film theory, in the way which we as viewers can be shown certain things on screen to help us connect with things we have previously been shown or are aware of. An example of this is within Hidden/Cache (Dir. Michael Haneke, 2005.) Within the film, Haneke wants to connect with the viewer through making them constantly look for clues and find an answer in the unknown subject of who sent the mysterious video tapes. A main theme behind the film is guilt, and he reveals this through portraying the idea that hidden guilt can be suppressed but will resurface eventually. Michael Haneke and other directors such as David Lynch focus a lot of their work around the subject of the uncanny as a theme; the idea that slightly odd or things we find frightening to look at are things that we have had experience with before in some way, and so can be to an extent normalised.

A lot of art is also centred around the theme of "the uncanny", and on his original theory Freud stated that  “The uncanny was not to be found in the exotic but the everyday.” A lot of artwork that relates to the idea of "the uncanny" appears as almost ordinary to the viewer, but with a twist to it. For example, the exhibition Lifelike (See more at: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/uncanny-startlingly-real#sthash.rtYHnD5t.dpuf ) includes a series of images that are "strangely familiar yet simultaneously foreign; we think we recognise the place that the image claims to represent but we are at a loss to identify that place definitively".

The idea of "the uncanny" is to some extent a trick of the mind; we think we perceive something as well known to us yet still feel unnerved when it does not appear to us completely as it normally would.

Research sources :

Bright Lights Film Journal: http://brightlightsfilm.com/hidden-within-ourselves-a-psychoanalytic-examination-of-the-effects-of-repression-in-michael-hanekes-cache/#.VP3EWcNFDIV

Aesthetica Magazine (Uncanny LifeLike exhibition)page) : http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/uncanny-startlingly-real#sthash.rtYHnD5t.dpuf