The Uncanniness of the Ordinary: Aesthetic Implications of Stanley Cavell’s Rethinking of Das Unheimliche
Abstract: Through the many reinterpretations of Freud’s essay Das Unheimliche (1919) within French Postmodernism, in recent decades, the uncanny has become a vague synonym for the methodology of deconstruction. The article aims to disambiguate the uncanny by reestablishing its characterizing nucleus and relocating it within the aesthetics through the philosophy of Stanley Cavell. The American philosopher claims that this feeling can be generated by drawing attention to the ordinary, which is so close and familiar to fade out of focus. Cavell and the German Philosopher Juliane Rebentisch following him show that artistic practices can reinforce this experience, as through displacements and dislocations, they deprive objects of daily use and ordinary matters of their familiarity and force us to look more closely at their material, sensorial, and phenomenological dimensions. In this way, Cavell and Rebentisch offer a path to reconstitute a stable conceptual framework for defining the uncanny, linking it to Freud’s definition of something familiar appearing in an unfamiliar light. At the same time, they also propose a novelty by interpreting the uncanny not as inherently frightening and disturbing but as a compelling affective state that encourages a willingness to reappropriate and rediscover the ordinary.
- Location
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Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
- Extent
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Online-Ressource
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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The Uncanniness of the Ordinary: Aesthetic Implications of Stanley Cavell’s Rethinking of Das Unheimliche ; volume:6 ; number:1 ; year:2023 ; extent:12
Open Philosophy ; 6, Heft 1 (2023) (gesamt 12)
- Creator
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Gineprini, Lorenzo
- DOI
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10.1515/opphil-2022-0252
- URN
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urn:nbn:de:101:1-2023072714024752599269
- Rights
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Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
- Last update
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14.08.2025, 10:52 AM CEST
Data provider
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Associated
- Gineprini, Lorenzo
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Edith Cavell
Miss Cavell.
Stanley Cavell
Der Fall Cavell
Miss Edith Cavell
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Stanley Cavell. Anstatt eines Nachrufs drei Gründe, warum Cavell weiterlebt
Stanley Cavell zur Einführung
First word philosophy : Wittgenstein - Austin - Cavell, writings on ordinary language philosophy
Stanley Cavell: Cavell on Film. Edited and with an Introduction by William Rothmann
Stanley Cavell: Cavell on Film. Edited and wiht an Introduction by William Rothmann