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The uncanny

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Uncanny by Nicholas Royle explores the concept of the uncanny, a feeling of something strangely familiar rather than merely mysterious or weird. Tracing its history from the Enlightenment to Freud's pivotal 1919 essay, the book offers a rich examination across disciplines such as literature, film, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. Royle provides detailed historical context and close readings on topics including the death drive, déjà vu, doubles, ghosts, and telepathy, alongside applications to politics, teaching, film, and religion.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$10200

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for scholars and students of literature, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, philosophy, film studies, and queer theory. Also suited to readers interested in critical theory and the exploration of complex cultural concepts.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

This is the first book-length study of the uncanny, an important topic for contemporary thinking on literature, film, philosophy, psychoanalysis, feminism and queer history.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This study is of the uncanny; an important concept for contemporary thinking and debate across a range of disciplines and discourses, including literature, film, architecture, cultural studies, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and queer theory. Much of this importance can be traced back to Freud's essay of 1919, "The Uncanny" (Das Unheimliche), where he was perhaps the first to foreground the distinctive nature of the uncanny as a feeling of something not simply weird or mysterious but, more specifically, as something strangely familiar.

As a concept and a feeling, however, the uncanny has a complex history going back to at least the Enlightenment. Royle offers a detailed historical account of the emergence of the uncanny, together with a series of close readings of different aspects of the topic.

Following a major introductory historical and critical overview, there are chapters on the death drive, déjà-vu, "silence, solitude and darkness", the fear of being buried alive, doubles, ghosts, cannibalism, telepathy, and madness, as well as more "applied" readings concerned, for example, with teaching, politics, film, and religion.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

'Without doubt the outstanding book in critical and cultural theory published in 2003' – Martin McQuillan, Editor of The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory.

'A brilliant book and indispensible to any study of the uncanny and literature. A critical tour de force.' – Textual Practice.

'A playful, scholarly study, densely argued yet full of insightful one-liners. A fascinating and ambitious work.' – The Guardian.

'A philosophical work that discusses ghosts and madness seriously with warmly engaging style. A hell of a page-turner and compulsive read.' – Pireandello.org.uk.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780719055614

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 13 February 2003

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Manchester University Press

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 499g

Pages: 352

About the Author

Nicholas Royle is Professor of English at the University of Sussex

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