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The "Uncanny" in Franz Kafka's Text Der Bou

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The OlgaTouloumi The "Uncanny" in Franz Kafka's text Der Bou What we call trauma takes place when the very powers that we are convinced will protect us and give us security, become our tormentors: when the community of which we consider ourselves members turns against us or when our family is no longer a source of refuge but a site of danger. Jenny Edkins^ Reading the definition of trauma bv Jenny Edl<ins, a desire meanings attributed to the homely, in the end leads Freud to of paraphrasing it emerged. It is not "when" does "what we the assumption that "heimlich is a word the meaning of which call trauma" take place, but "where," Where do we stand develops towards an ambivalence, until it finally coincides convinced of protection and security-" And, thus, which is the with its opposite, unheimlich"^ Under this consideration, the place of refuge that could invert into a site of danger for the "uncanny" is not concealed as the opposite of the homely, traumatized subject? but rather as the same within the "homely," as inherent in its In 1923, Franz Kafka writes the short story The Burrow after meaning. The "unhomely" emerges within the "homely" as the diagnosis of tuberculosis.' The protagonist of the story is something familiar that has been once repressed.' a creature in its pursuit of the "perfect shelter" that would Addressing the Freudian theory of the "uncanny," and protect it from the "dangerous other." This creature is described its location within the "homely," in describing the space in as an in-between animal/human condition automaton Franz Kafka's story, calls for the use of binary oppositional that, urged by its anxiety, proceeds in the materialization/ pairs, in-between which the oscillation of the "homely" can construction of its ultimate "shelter," its "home." We do be explored. Thus, the space described within the text will be not know when the construction began. Franz Kafka has his read through the application of the notion of the "homely" in a protagonist claiming in the beginning of the short story that list of bi-polarities already identified within it (inside/outside, he has completed the construction of the burrow and that solid/void, artificial/natural, safe/dangerous, I/other) and the "it seems to be successful."' however the unfolding of the inversions that take place. narration will reveal the incompleteness underlying this exact phrase. The dweller oscillates between doing and undoing, a poetics of "doing" constructing and erasing, forever trapped in the midst of his The Bau. in Kafka's short story, is constructed underneath effort. The construction is mended to be a mechanism of the surface, as a self-enclosed void within the solid of control, an apparatus of exclusion of the other and inclusion of the earth. The poetics circulate around the poetics of the the self in the pursuit of the ultimately homely environment. border, the shaping and geometrizing of the solid ground as Speaking about the "homely," I could not resist a more or a spatial barrier between the inner void and the outer void. less Freudian approach to the heimlich through the notion The entrance serves as an inverted architectural signifier of of the unheimlich, often translated as "unhomely" and/ the border, and thus of the Bau as well. It is structured as an 38 or "uncanny."" An excessive documentation of all possible apparatus that consists of an opening bearing the geometry Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00283 by guest on 30 September 2021 of the entrance but denying its functionality, as it leads to a While motion is addressed and controlled by numerous dead end, and an opening covered with moss functioning as passages, poses are hosted by cells. They are dilated rounded the actual entrance but denying the geometry that signifies void spaces generated along pre-decided points on the line its functionality. The entrance signifier, spatially analyzed to of the passages and organized in a hierarchal order. These its components, succeeds in deferring meaning contribution cells^ are essential to the establishment of the notion of the and, thus, generates a deceiving apparatus, a trap, turned "homely" within the Bau. They are the representational places initially toward the possible invader. However, it is by this of the architect's/protagonist's identity that protect him exact entrance typology that we become aware of the identity against the undesirable "other." of the space constructed through the fundamental gesture of Among them, the Castle Keep serves as the ultimate exclusion and enchantment. This mechanism indicates more shelter, and thus, is the most precious part of the Sou.' It than the entrance, the gate; it indicates the existence of a place is a round vaulted space pierced by the linear voids of ten to enter, it betrays the Sou, and the creature acl<nowledges passages. It is the core cell of his construction, the spatial that. He is already entrapped within this duplicated inverse matrix of the Sou. The whole spatial structure serves as an entrance, for the Bou will never be safe enough. apparatus that provisions the Castle Keep and simultaneously The construction is based on a general plan conducted by the 'Castle Keep' functions as the spatial womb that the creature. It consists of two systematized networks: one generates the whole structure of surveillance, necessary for its of linear voids that serve as passages and one of receptacles existence. It functions as a geometrical inversion of Bentham's of spatial voids, generated in the intersection of the linear "Panopticon;" the omnipotent gaze of the creature/architect voids. The tissue of the passages expands and generates situated in the middle of the central void is a gaze turned more void in the inside; when approaching the entrance/exit towards him. of the structure, the network is transformed into a labyrinth structure. the emergence of the "uncanny" Throughout the short story, and before the "uncanny" It is always with a certain solemnity that I approach the emerges, it Is presented as the space where the creature finds exit again... it is no easy job to wander about there, for I itself better oriented and safer. This is precisely the place have contrived there a whole little maze of passages: it was where the "other" is least expected. However, "the better there that I began my burrow, at a time when I hod hope orientated in his environment a person is, the less readily will of ever completing it according to my plans; ...here is my he get the impression of something uncanny in regard to the main entrance, I said in those days, ironically addressing my objects and events in it,"'" as Freud mentions in his unfolding invisible enemies and seeing them all already caught and of the "uncanny." So this is exactly the moment and the place ' stifled in the outer labyrinth... for the emergence of the "uncanny," the moment the creature By doubling and multiplying the linear voids of the passages, enjoys the "homeliness" of his Castle Keep. space and time intervening between the entrance/exit This had to happen just in my favorite room. I think to and the center, the inside and the outside of the Sou, are myself and I walk a fair good distance away from it, almost distended. Space unfolds within the labyrinth so as to halfway along the passage leading to the next room: but contain motion and time. The space of the Sou is controlled, I do this merely as a joke, pretending to myself that my delineated and split up by the ceremonial model of entering favorite room is not alone to blame, but that there are the edifice, imposed by the maze. The labyrinth, being the disturbances elsewhere as well, and with a smile on my face first construction of the Sou following the construction of I begin to listen: but soon I stop smiling, for, right enough, the entrance, is impregnated with the mission of controlling the same whistling meets me here too.'''' the construction. The labyrinth stands as the protagonist's disembodied eye that surveys and punishes every breaking of It is this spatial matrix that gives birth to the "uncanny" the border. It is structured as a trap that could capture even within the "homely," to the unfamiliar within the familiar its own architect/builder. The dangerous "other" originally repressed and expelled from 39 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00283 by guest on 30 September 2021 the homely environment of the spatial matrix/womb, now in reality, here nothing has changed: silent or vociferous, returns and demonstrates its existence through the whistling. danger lies in ambush as before above the moss..." The "uncanny" effect is generated by the manifestation The entrance is now the place of tranquility because it is of the repressed wish that "ought to have remained hidden perceived as an exit; an exit that will relieve the creature from and secret."" Yet, the question remains open; what is the anxiety. The outer labyrinth that was constructed as a trap creature's repressed wish that is now exposed? for the potential invader is now turned against its dweller. The network of the passages, along with the numerous The creature is now located and controlled by the surveillance cavities/cells, the openings of the entrance and the Castle apparatus of the Bau that he has designed. The protagonist is Keep are organized and structured as the organs of the body now the "other" that has burst into the Bau. It was only after the creature inhabits.
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