Colloquium: The Sublime and the Uncanny in Literature, the Arts and Architecture
Timetable
Wednesday and Thursday 31 March – 1 April / 21-22 April / 28-29 april: 13-17 hr.
Wednesday and Thursday 19-20 May: 10-17 hr
Vrieshof 4, room 008A.
Method of Instruction
Seminar
Description
Whereas the sublime is one of the oldest aesthetic concepts in Western Europe, which received its first canonic formulation in ps-Longinus’ Peri hupsous (probably written in the 1st century AD), the uncanny, or das Unheimliche, is often considered as the slightly frivolous younger cousin of the sublime, and one of the very few modern aesthetic concepts that were developed after the 1750s. Although many works of art, poems and novels were produced from the 1750s onwards that showed characteristics of the uncanny, ranging from E.Th. Hoffmann’s and Edgar Allan Poe’s tales to the watercolours of Victor Hugo or the videos of Douglas Gordon, it was only with Sigmund Freud’s famous essay on Das Unheimliche of 1919, that it received a theoretical, albeit very unstable, consecration. Even today, when compared with the enormous amount of interest in the sublime, the uncanny seems a rather neglected topic. In this colloquium we want to contribute to the study of the uncanny by asking the following questions: – what is the relation between the sublime and the uncanny? Is the uncanny indeed a ‘light’ version of the sublime, originating in popular genres such as the Gothic novel, whereas the sublime has always been part of high culture? Or can we reconstruct very different origins for the uncanny? – Is it indeed the case that the uncanny, both as a genre and as an aesthetic concept, was invented c. 1750, or can we find earlier artistic and literary phenomena that may not have been called uncanny in explicit terms, but nonetheless come close to current definitions? – Is Freud’s analysis of the uncanny as an irrational fear, caused for instance when inanimate objects are mistaken as animate or behave as living beings, or by the occurrence of doubles or Doppelgänger, still adequate? What are the implications of his use of psychoanalysis to analyse an artistic phenomenon? – What about the visual arts and architecture? Anthony Vidler wrote a groundbreaking study of the uncanny in architecture in 1992, but since then little seems to have been done to reflect on the uncanny in the arts and architecture, and its relations to literature or psychoanalysis, even though the uncanny as an artistic phenomenon is very much alive, witness for instance the recent publication of The New Uncanny.
The programme of the seminar
This is a three-day research seminar, in which we will model as completely as possible the process of researching, writing and presenting a scholarly paper at a conference. In preparation, students are asked to study the items marked with an * on the reading list (see below), which will offer a preliminary theoretical framework. After lectures by the tutors of the colloquium the students will decide which topic to pursue in their own contribution, taking the questions formulated here as a starting-point. They can also identify new or hitherto neglected cases of the uncanny, or to write a paper on one of the wider issues the uncanny and its relation to the sublime touches. [workload preliminary phase: 80 hours]
The seminar will take place on five days in April and May 2010, each day from 14.00 to 17.00. In the first week, there will be lectures by the tutors. Before the first session, students are expected to have read the texts indicated below by an *. In week three the students are asked to present a brief preliminary report on their research activities, of 20 minutes each. Please provide a hand-out with full bibliography, and an abstract of 100 words for the presentation. In week 4, there will be two full days of student presentations, followed by class-room discussion. These days will be conducted according to the format of a Masterclass, i.e. all aspects of professional presentation and competence will be discussed: abstract, hand-out, content of presentation, presentation as such, first reaction by student-respondent, level of the discussion, quality and intensity of participation, handling of questions by presenter [workload oral presentation: 30 hours]. The tutors will be available for advice during the entire seminar month.
After the colloquium, students will write a short discussion paper (5000 words, including notes and bibliography), to be posted on Blackboard. The deadline for submissions is June 1st, 2010. [workload written paper: 30 hours].
Examination
Active participation and preparation: 20%
Oral presentation: 30%
Written paper: 50%
Required reading
ps-Longinus, Peri hupsous [various editions, preferably Russell, D.A., ‘Longinus’. On the Sublime, Oxford 1964/ Longinus, On the Sublime, translation by W.H. Fyfe, revised by Donald Russell, Cambridge Massachusetts & London, 1995 (Loeb Classical Library)/Longinus, Het sublieme, vertaald door Michiel Op de Coul, ingeleid door C.M.J. Sicking, nawoord door Jeroen A.E. Bons, Groningen 2000.
Burke, E., A Philosophical Inquiry into the Causes of the Sublime and the Beautiful (London 1757, modern edition London 1955 and many reprints)
Freud, S., ‘The Uncanny’, in: S. Freud, Art and Literature (The Pelican Freud Library vol. 14, edited by Albert Dickson). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, (1985 [1919]), pp. 335-76.
Vidler, A., The Architectural Uncanny. Essays in the Modern Unhomely. Cambridge, Mass. and London: The MIT Press, 1992.
Eifert-Körnig, A., ‘Unheimliche Architektur: Bauen am Rande der Objekthaftigkeit’, in: G. Gamer (ed.), Das unendliche Kunstwerk. Hamburg: Philo, 2007, 65-86.
German, S., ‘Pleasureable Fear. Géricault and uncanny trends at the opening of the 19th century’, Art History 22 (1999): 158-83
Kemp, W. ‘Walkers in lonely Places. On the representation of the uncanny in 19th-century German art’, in: A. Roesler-Friedenthal (ed.), The Enduring Instant. Time and the spectator in the visual arts. Berlin: Mann, 2003, 103-25
Krämer, F., Das unheimliche Heim: zur Interieurmalerei um 1900. Cologne: Böhlau, 2007.
Reinhardt, V., Der unheimliche Pabst: Alexander VI Borgia 1431-1503. Munich: Beck, 2005.
Stoichita, V. Das Double. Berlin: Harrassowitz [=Wölffenbütteler Forschungen 113, 2006].
Von der Thüsen, J. Het verlangen naar huivering. Over het sublieme, het wrede en het unheimliche, 1997.
Information
Prof.dr. C.A. van Eck
Or: Secretary’s Office of Pallas, Institute for Cultural Disciplines. P.N. van Eyckhof 3, room 104a; Telephone: +31 (0)71 527 2166
pallas@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Students are requested to register in U-TWIST or at the secretary’s office of the Art History department (Doelensteeg 16, room 003. E-mail: secrkg@hum.leidenuniv.nl)