Naslov
„Uncanny Domesticity“ in Contemporary American Fiction

Autori
Šesnić, Jelena

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
Biennial Conference of the European Association of American Studies

Mjesto i datum
Constanţa, Rumunjska, 21.04.2016. - 25.04.2016

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
the uncanny, domesticity, foreign, domestic, globalization

Sažetak
I will be using the term “uncanny domesticity” to account for a trend in contemporary US fiction, often arising in response to the events of 9/11 but not exclusively due to them, to employ as a hard kernel of its plots some instances of the uncanny—here used mostly in its classic Freudian account as something that is so familiar and homely, and yet too frightening and disturbing, to remember. I will argue that this uneasy dynamics takes place precisely at the intersection of the local and homely (US domestic and domesticated spaces) and its foreign underside. The foreign, or by extension the uncanny takes various forms—be it that of terrorism (real or anticipated), uncontainable immigration, economic melt-down, environmental hazards, natural disasters, wars, and political violence and upheavals. While the domestic logic very much strives to keep these indicators of globalization or global interconnectedness outside of its domain relying on the role of the nation-state to do the work of consolidation, the novels of contemporary middle-class life in the United States are replete with the accounts of characters struggling to make sense in a world that far exceeds the bounds of “home” in line with the recent global overreach of the nation-state to which they nominally belong. This process is for the characters often the encounter with the uncanny that resides in the recesses of America's past or comes into being by its present-day actions. Some of these observations will be illustrated by drawing on the exemplary novels by Jonathan Raban, Claire Messud, and Barbara Kingsolver for an illustration of a more general tendency.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

POVEZANOST RADA