This document discusses Freud's and Kristeva's perspectives on representing the uncanny in art and literature. It examines how doubling is used as a technique to create uncanny feelings, analyzing examples from the films Corpse Bride, Coraline, and Pan's Labyrinth. Specifically, it looks at how the doubling of characters in these films introduces elements of death, identity issues, nostalgia, and anxiety. The document also explores how the animation medium itself can bring the inanimate to life in an uncanny way and the depiction of women as monstrous figures in the stories.

1. FROM PAST TO
PRESENT:
THE REPRESENTATION
OF THE UNCANNY IN
ANIMATION

2. Freud’s perspective:
Invalidating the uncanny
effects in art and
literature
“What has been repressed
and what has been
surmounted cannot be
transposed on the uncanny
in fiction.”

3. Are you SERIOUS?
Kristeva’s Perspective:
Validating the uncanny effects in art and
literature
“Uncanniness is the destruction of the
self, either remaining as a psychotic
symptom or fit in as an opening towards the
new.”

4. Defining The Uncanny: Causes and
Factors
Freud:
Uncanny defined as “a class of frightening things
which can be shown to be repressed and which recurs.”
Kristeva: The Deconstruction of the self
Freud’s Factors which cause the uncanny:
The double
Castration Anxiety
Fear

5. The double as a technique used to create an
uncanny feeling:
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror 1932

6. Double Trouble in animation:
Three films explored different
elements of
The Uncanny.
CORPSE BRIDE: The features of Death
CORALINE: Issues of Identity
Pan’s Labyrinth: Nostalgia and
Anxiety

7. 1. The juxtaposition of scenes in the
protagonist’s world creates the uncanny.
e.g. Real vs. Imaginary worlds
2. Where the animation (the medium itself)
brings the inanimate to life
Rudd David., ‘An Eye for an Eye: Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Questions of Identity,’
in Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 39, 2008
Creating the Uncanny feeling in animation

8. Dissecting the Protagonist's World
Barbara Creed’s: The Monstrous Feminine:
In all three films, the woman is the
protagonist, who undertakes a journey to find
her own sexual identity.
Barabara Creed describes the monstrous
feminine as the terrifying, horrific abject
woman whose sexuality drives her to insanity

9. Corpse Bride:
Doubling of characters:
Emily and Victoria: Emily is everything that Victoria isn’t ‘
Emily as the monstrous female
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9boDkpEyvc
Features of the dead:
The nostalgia emanating from Emily’s past, the doubling of Victor’s
pet Scraps, and the doubling of the living are just some examples
that demonstrate the uncanny though the character’s journey.

10. Coraline
Doubling of characters:
Features of Identity:
Mrs. Jones and Mr. Jones
Vs.
Other Mom and Other

11. Pan’s Labyrinth
Doubling of characters:
(features of Nostalgia
And fear)
PALE MAN
VS.
CAPTAIN VIDAL

12. DOUBLING UP THE HOME?

15. The doubling in art and literature is a
technique used to create the
uncanny effect.
The technique has been effective, and is
solidified in history’s myths and legends.
As long as stories continue, the uncanny will
remain to play a part in people’s lives.