On The Writing Of The Uncanny In Winesburg,Ohio

Sherwood Anderson is a famous American author living in the 2nd half of the 19th century and the 1st half of the 20th century. He is honored as "the forefather of American psychological writers". For the common "uncanny insight" between Sherwood Anderson and Sigmund Freud, this paper attempts to analyze Anderson’s masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio from the perspective of Freud’s theory of the uncanny, and tries to explore Anderson’s deconstruction and subversion of the "truth", namely, the western civilization, in this novel.Winesburg, Ohio is haunted with an intensified feeling of the uncanny. Uncanny motifs, namely, repetition, coincidence, animism as well as automatism, are represented throughout different stories, rendering a sense of "uncertainty" to the text. Therefore, this paper starts from the uncanny representation in the book, later further explores the implicit uncertainty concealing behind the phenomenon of the grotesques’ uncanniness. The uncertainty, in effect, is closely related to Anderson’s construction of the grotesques, within whom there is a repressed stranger. More significantly, Anderson tries to figure out the root cause of the stranger from the standpoint of modern civilization. Therefore, by means of uncanny narrative, this paper tries to disclose the repression of modernity upon individuals and highlights Anderson’s reflection on the western tradition, which is regarded as the single "truth" governing the American society.In conclusion, this paper explores Anderson’s writing of the uncanny in Winesburg, Ohio from three levels. Underneath the superficial representation of the uncanny lies the dissociation of the subject, which can be further traced back to Anderson’s truth and Freud’s discontent of civilization at the same time. From this perspective, this paper states that by means of uncanny narrative, Anderson represents individual’s anxiety and alienation in the shadow of modernity, thus shapes a serious blow to the legitimacy of the man-made value system of "truth", and reflects on the reasonability of the systemized modernity, which also forms the aesthetic value of Winesburg, Ohio.