Fearing the Future The Uncanny Child and Modern Children's Literature

Sean Marlow

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wallace, Miriam

Keywords

Freud, Sigmund, Children's Literature, Uncanny

Area of Concentration

British and American Literature

Abstract

This thesis examines Freud's concept of the uncanny as it applies to modern children's literature and argues that the uncanny sensations these works evoke within adults may be an unconscious cause of the censorship of these works. In the first chapter, I examine L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) paying particular attention to instances of automata and how children serve a similar uncanny function for adults. In the second chapter, I explore Neil Gaiman's Coraline and how the work presents a vision of Freudian development that culminates in a confrontation with and rejection of the mother. Finally, in the third chapter, I look at J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series concentrating on the presence of the double while briefly touching upon Kristeva's theory of abjection as it applies to Lord Voldemort. I argue that these elements create a sensation in the adult reader which forces him or her to retreat into rationality while simultaneously preventing the child reader from access to material that might assist in his or her development. In doing so, the adult hinders the development of the child and ensures that the child can never become an uncanny replacement.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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