I’ve been spending a lot of my research time lately investigating the subgenre of Folk Horror and enjoying what might be called the revival’s second wave, or a rising appreciation of it among cinephiles, spearheaded in recent days by the recent release of Kier-La Janisse’s documentary, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched from Severin Films. I’m […]
Category: Theory
Theoretical musings about the uncanny. Includes scholarship, articles, presentations, exhibitions and books on theories of The Uncanny.
New Online Course: “The Uncanny & The Abject”
“The Uncanny and The Abject”: Applying Psychology to Disturb the Reader Live Saturday, May 22, 5 P.M. EST — StokerCon 2021 Online Also Available Asynchronously Following the Event! Details TBA DESCRIPTION: This two hour online workshop will unravel the psychological theories of the Uncanny and the Abject. Together, we will explore how they pertain to […]
Doublement
One of the reasons that the Double is often considered frightening is because it represents a kind of evil twin — an Other that threatens the ego. We find such doubles everywhere — from fictional tales to unexpectedly catching our own reflections in the mirror. These encounters with the doppelgänger threaten to erase the ego […]
UO Feminist Media Studies Symposium (10-11 Feb 2017)
This Spring, the University of Oregon Cinema Studies program is hosting a Symposium on Feminist Media Studies in honor of the program founder, Kathleen Rowe Karlyn. Kathleen was my Ph.D. dissertation advisor in the UO English Department back in the late 90’s, helping guide me through the initial research and early draft of The Popular […]
Terror Management Theory and the Uncanny Valley (Video)
Here’s a video clip from my lecture last October at Neumann University on the Uncanny Valley. About an hour into the discussion of why androids and animatronics might creep us out, I gave this overview of “terror management theory” to explore how it applies to theories of the uncanny (das Unheimliche) and the representations of […]
The Return of the Uncanny and the Rise of the Uncanny Valley
Although there is some wise debate about the reliability of Google NGrams as statistical proof, it is still interesting to see the way the term “uncanny” has come into — and gone out of — fashion over the years… Here’s how google NGram tracks the appearance of the term “uncanny” in all books between 1800 […]
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