Uncanny (Sigmund Freud) : Understanding of the word Uncanny

 Before analysing the text, we must focus on the word ‘uncanny’. Freud presents the word ‘uncanny’ as a translation of the German word unheimlich, the opposite of heimlich, which means ‘familiar’ or ‘belonging to the home’. This translation makes the understanding of the word confusing. If we have in mind the literal translation of unheimlich, the ‘uncanny’ should be referred to things that are scary because they are unfamiliar to us. 

       Contrary to that, Freud divides the meaning of the Uncanny in two courses, ‘on the one hand, it means that which is familiar and congenial, and on the other, that which is concealed and kept out of sight. Thus, the meaning of Heimlich  slowly presents an ambivalence that moves its meaning towards its opposite, unheimlich. In reaction to that, both paths end up leading to the same result: “the ‘uncanny’ is that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar.”

        

         One of the most controversial topics in The Sandman is the figure that gives name to the story: the ‘sandman’. In the short story, Nathaniel remembers his childhood and the tragic loss of his father. His childhood memories are haunted by a sinister old man. As a child, Nathanael believed this dark figure to be the mythic Sandman, who puts children to sleep by stealing their eyes. When confronted by this same evil presence as an adult, he is pushed toward madness as he tries to confront his childhood fears. Meanwhile, Nathanael finds distraction in a beautiful and glassy-eyed woman named Olympia who he spies on from his window. After dancing with her at a wild party he begins courting her, but his happiness is ill-fated. Nathanael discovers that Olympia is an automaton - a machine made of wood and clockwork - with her glassy eyes created by the terrible Sandman.

In The Sandman, Freud finds different topics in which the reader has this notion of the ‘uncanny’. These moments don’t have to be directly terrifying, but like in most of the gothic texts, they start by making the reader feel uncomfortable in front of something as familiar as a house or a doll and this feeling grows into horror for the ‘unanimated’ house or doll.