Amongst Thomas Ligotti’s collection of short stories in Teatro Grottesco, the short stories ‘’The Shadow, The Darkness’’ and ‘’Purity’’ have aspects of the uncanny in their narration, ideas, and characters. Strangely enough these stories also link back to each other in a dark twisted sense.
Freud introduces the subject of the uncanny by comparing it to the German translation the ‘unheimlich’ which signifies the unhomely. In opposition stands the ‘heimlich’ which is the homely. The Freudian definition is defined as frightening in this context. Freud elaborates upon the frightening aspect of the uncanny by describing it as something which ‘’the barriers between the unknown and the known are teetering on the brink of collapse’’ (Putner 130). The familiarity of it gives us a sense of already having been here before, a sense of ‘’déjà vu’’, for it reminds us of something from our psychological past which ‘’cannot be fully remembered’’ (Putner 130). The uncanny is unfamiliar and familiar simultaneously and this is what provokes it to be unnerving and eerie.
The last story in Teatro Grottesco is about a struggling artist who turns his life around after a physical-metaphysical recovery caused by a gastrointestinal attack. He emerges from this ‘transformation’ with the belief that self, imagination and hopes are all but human nonsense and that we’re nothing but our physical bodies. The ‘truth’ according to the recovered artist Grossvogel is that ‘’The Shadow/The Darkness’’ is what animates humans for it is ‘’inside of everything and thoroughly pervades everything- an all moving darkness that has no substance in itself’’ (Ligotti 259). The artist believes that humans are but shells that the shadow uses for its activating energy to thrive, a concept which is similar to the idea of the puppeteer and the puppets. The narrator and others are first frightened and offset by these ideas for they challenge normality and rationality which makes accepted everyday things uncertain. Thus the idea of the shadow becomes uncanny for it provokes a sense that things aren’t what they appear. It disturbs space parallels and gives the sense that ‘’life [is] going on ‘elsewhere’ in some location we can no longer define or explain’ ‘’ while simultaneously engaging with the space parallel of reality (Putner 134).
Once the narrator himself suffers from a gastrointestinal attack which triggers him to see what he couldn’t see before, ‘’bodies eclipsed by the shadow swirling inside their skins, some of them still speaking as though they were persons who possessed a mind and a self’’ (Ligotti 276). The shadow is believed to be something that has always encompassed humans and so it is familiar but yet since it is also unseen it is unfamiliar. Once again aspects of the uncanny can be attributed to the shadow for it is between the barriers of the known and unknown. In this idea, ‘’the domestic, Heimlich self [is] under siege’’ by the unheimlich for the shadow suggests that the unheimlich has always been part of the heimlich (Putner 134). This offset a sensation of ‘’déjà vu’’ as it reminds of an element of the psychological past which cannot not be truly remembered.
The first story is about a reserved family who continuously moves about due to the father’s ’scientific experiments’. The father is ultimately searching for a ‘pure conception’ and looking for ways in which to remove ‘impurities’. The narrator is told by his father that ‘’every opinion or passion, everything altogether is tainted by the bodies and minds of strangers. Cooties’’ (Ligotti 3-4). This belief which is imprinted into the children from a young age arises the idea that individual thoughts aren’t one’s own. These 'cooties' are the 'impurities' for they render the purity of identity impossible.This is uncanny as once again it mingles the familiar with the unfamiliar.
Interestingly, this belief links back to the uncanny in the last story. Where do these thoughts originate? Ligotti answers this with the encompassing presence of the shadow and darkness which infiltrates and ’activates’ all. But then what is the shadow with its absence of origin? It is such an unbearable truth that humans have to imagine and believe 'nonsensical' things of identity instead of facing it. Ligotti excellently completes and complements his collection of short stories by tying in the first story to the last story. Not only does this result in a circular effect but it also alludes to the cyclic past of the American Gothic. For that is what the shadow is; the haunting past. We are composed of the past and yet when it makes itself seen it threatens our sense of identity and self. This itself makes it uncanny as it is both familiar and not for it encompasses and controls all the unseen, ‘’There is only this body, this shadow, this darkness’’ (Ligotti 280).
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WORKS CITED
Ligotti, Thomas. “The Shadow, The Darkness.” Teatro Grottesco. London: Virgin Books Ltd, 2008. 243-280. Print.
---“Purity.” Teatro Grottesco. London: Virgin Books Ltd, 2008. 3-21. Print.
Putner, David. ‘’Uncanny.’’ Routledge Companion to the Gothic. Ed. Catherine Spooner and Emma McEvoy. Routledge, 2007. 137-46. Print
Freud introduces the subject of the uncanny by comparing it to the German translation the ‘unheimlich’ which signifies the unhomely. In opposition stands the ‘heimlich’ which is the homely. The Freudian definition is defined as frightening in this context. Freud elaborates upon the frightening aspect of the uncanny by describing it as something which ‘’the barriers between the unknown and the known are teetering on the brink of collapse’’ (Putner 130). The familiarity of it gives us a sense of already having been here before, a sense of ‘’déjà vu’’, for it reminds us of something from our psychological past which ‘’cannot be fully remembered’’ (Putner 130). The uncanny is unfamiliar and familiar simultaneously and this is what provokes it to be unnerving and eerie.
The last story in Teatro Grottesco is about a struggling artist who turns his life around after a physical-metaphysical recovery caused by a gastrointestinal attack. He emerges from this ‘transformation’ with the belief that self, imagination and hopes are all but human nonsense and that we’re nothing but our physical bodies. The ‘truth’ according to the recovered artist Grossvogel is that ‘’The Shadow/The Darkness’’ is what animates humans for it is ‘’inside of everything and thoroughly pervades everything- an all moving darkness that has no substance in itself’’ (Ligotti 259). The artist believes that humans are but shells that the shadow uses for its activating energy to thrive, a concept which is similar to the idea of the puppeteer and the puppets. The narrator and others are first frightened and offset by these ideas for they challenge normality and rationality which makes accepted everyday things uncertain. Thus the idea of the shadow becomes uncanny for it provokes a sense that things aren’t what they appear. It disturbs space parallels and gives the sense that ‘’life [is] going on ‘elsewhere’ in some location we can no longer define or explain’ ‘’ while simultaneously engaging with the space parallel of reality (Putner 134).
Once the narrator himself suffers from a gastrointestinal attack which triggers him to see what he couldn’t see before, ‘’bodies eclipsed by the shadow swirling inside their skins, some of them still speaking as though they were persons who possessed a mind and a self’’ (Ligotti 276). The shadow is believed to be something that has always encompassed humans and so it is familiar but yet since it is also unseen it is unfamiliar. Once again aspects of the uncanny can be attributed to the shadow for it is between the barriers of the known and unknown. In this idea, ‘’the domestic, Heimlich self [is] under siege’’ by the unheimlich for the shadow suggests that the unheimlich has always been part of the heimlich (Putner 134). This offset a sensation of ‘’déjà vu’’ as it reminds of an element of the psychological past which cannot not be truly remembered.
The first story is about a reserved family who continuously moves about due to the father’s ’scientific experiments’. The father is ultimately searching for a ‘pure conception’ and looking for ways in which to remove ‘impurities’. The narrator is told by his father that ‘’every opinion or passion, everything altogether is tainted by the bodies and minds of strangers. Cooties’’ (Ligotti 3-4). This belief which is imprinted into the children from a young age arises the idea that individual thoughts aren’t one’s own. These 'cooties' are the 'impurities' for they render the purity of identity impossible.This is uncanny as once again it mingles the familiar with the unfamiliar.
Interestingly, this belief links back to the uncanny in the last story. Where do these thoughts originate? Ligotti answers this with the encompassing presence of the shadow and darkness which infiltrates and ’activates’ all. But then what is the shadow with its absence of origin? It is such an unbearable truth that humans have to imagine and believe 'nonsensical' things of identity instead of facing it. Ligotti excellently completes and complements his collection of short stories by tying in the first story to the last story. Not only does this result in a circular effect but it also alludes to the cyclic past of the American Gothic. For that is what the shadow is; the haunting past. We are composed of the past and yet when it makes itself seen it threatens our sense of identity and self. This itself makes it uncanny as it is both familiar and not for it encompasses and controls all the unseen, ‘’There is only this body, this shadow, this darkness’’ (Ligotti 280).
---
WORKS CITED
Ligotti, Thomas. “The Shadow, The Darkness.” Teatro Grottesco. London: Virgin Books Ltd, 2008. 243-280. Print.
---“Purity.” Teatro Grottesco. London: Virgin Books Ltd, 2008. 3-21. Print.
Putner, David. ‘’Uncanny.’’ Routledge Companion to the Gothic. Ed. Catherine Spooner and Emma McEvoy. Routledge, 2007. 137-46. Print