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Home Truths: The Importance of the Uncanny for Patrick Süskind's Critique of the Enlightenment in Das Parfum
Author(s) -
Woolley Jonathan
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
german life and letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1468-0483
pISSN - 0016-8777
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0483.2007.00384.x
Subject(s) - uncanny , enlightenment , evocation , literature , character (mathematics) , art , aesthetics , philosophy , psychoanalysis , art history , psychology , epistemology , geometry , mathematics
This article attempts to show how Patrick Süskind's Das Parfum is pervaded by a sense of the uncanny, with both characters and reader experiencing an uneasiness that can be traced back to the familiar and its repression. While this experience can partly be explained by the categories outlined by Freud in his influential essay of 1919, ‘Das Unheimliche’, the article seeks to look beyond these by considering the uncanniness of the body and its metamorphosis in the novel. The article argues that Süskind's evocation of the uncanny does not merely add to the entertaining character of the novel, but also needs to be seen as an integral part of his critique of the Enlightenment.