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|Chapter1.TheOtherMethodologyoftheOther
thepublicsphereinaHdebateoverthebasesofaliberalpoliticalsystem.”66
Tedisputeoverthecanonstirredthehumanitiesandenergizedintellectual
life,whichwitherswithoutdebate.
HaroldBloom’scontributionwascentraltothatparticulardispute.He
assertsthatwhatmakesanauthorcanonicalisstrangenessanduncanniness,
Hamodeoforiginalitythateithercannotbeassimilated,orthatsoassimilates
usthatweceasetoseeitasstrange.”
67
Bloompointstothenineteenth-century
aestheteWalterPater’sdefinitionofRomanticismasamovementwhich
addedtheuncannytobeauty,andextendsthatblendontoanycanonical
author.FromDante’stheDivineComedytoSamuelBecket’sEndgame,we
findourselveswithinuncanniness,movingfromoneofitsflavorstoanother.
Bloomencouragesare-readingoftheDivineComedy;Shakespeare;Paradise
Lost;thesecondpartofFaustus;PeerGynt;Ulysses;TeSecondSexand,in
Polishliterature,theproseofBrunoSchulzorWitoldGombrowicz.Tese
canonicalworksshareonequality:theirart,justlikeartingeneral,makes
usfeelathomewithintheuncanny.Italsomakesusfeelstrangeathome.
Notdissimilarclaimsonstrangenessandtheuncannyaboundinthe
writingofJuliaKristeva.Sheviewsstrangenessandalterityasinherentto
subjectivity.DasUnheimliche-theuncanny-isapropertyofthesubject.
AnantecedentofKristeva’sviewcanbefoundasfarbackasancientGreece:
initsfirststasimon,Sophocles’Antigoneusestheworddeinotatontodenote
thesubject;HeideggertranslatesthisasDasUnheimlichstedesUnheimlichen
istderMensch:Temostuncannyoftheuncannyisthehumanbeing.Sigmund
FreudexplicatesthesemanticsofdasUnheimliche:themeaningofheimlich
evolvestowardsambivalencetoeventuallyconvergewiththemeaningof
itserstwhileantonymformedwiththeprivativeprefixun:unheimlich.
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Tefamiliar:thefamilial;thehomely;theintimate;thenative,isatthesame
timethehidden:theclandestine;thesuspicious;thedemonic;thestrange:the
disquieting;thepeculiar;thealien;theuncanny.Tetaskofthehumanities
istoexplorethisstrangeness:thehomelyuncanny.
Bloomstrivestoreadthetext-andIdisagreewiththis-ratherthan
focusonthecontext,forlimitingliteraryscholarshiptoananalysisofthe
contextleadstoascientism,atransplantationofmethodologiesfromunrelated
66
Ibid,77.
67
HaroldBloom,TeWesternCanon(NewYork:RiverheadBooks,1995),3.
68
SigmundFreud,HDasUnheimliche”,GesammelteWerke(Frankfurt/M:S.Fischer,1947),vol.
12,229-268.