Uncanny!
Ways into this strange type of fiction – no Halloween costume needed
The uncanny is a funny old category in fiction. Freud’s famous essay on the subject dominates the landscape, yet has some pretty kooky, even unfortunate ideas in it. Still, it reminds us that the original German word is unheimlich, which means something like unhomely – a clue to how the uncanny often works, by putting a familiar thing in the wrong place, or an unfamiliar thing in a familiar place.
That’s not all there is to it, though, and one of the reasons this genre, if we can call it that, stays alive and kicking is that our instincts don’t always align on what feels uncanny and what doesn’t. So, we keep talking about it, trying to write it, and seeing what gives us the shivers. Here’s a round-up of some great books and other things to help you investigate what makes your own soul recoil.
The New Uncanny – an anthology of short stories from Comma Press, in which authors were asked to choose a trope from Freud’s list of uncanny things. There’s a great introduction from Ra Page, and some fantastic stories from Hanif Kureishi, A S Byatt, Adam Marek, Sara Maitland and Nicholas Royle among others.
Writing the Uncanny – an anthology of essays edited by Dan Coxon, in which contemporary authors explore how exactly they craft unsettling fiction. There are some fascinating insights, with essays divided into enticing categories such as ‘the ghost in the machine’ and ‘land and lore’.
The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher – now a classic and a must-read for anyone interested in, well, the weird and the eerie, but also the uncanny, as Fisher draws his own lines between these categories, and takes a critical tour of influential works from the 20th century.
Tales of the Weird: An Autumnal Festival – this Saturday, 2nd November, sees a series of talks and conversations taking place at the British Library but also online (with catch-up viewing available afterwards). Tune in to see Andrew Michael Hurley, Daisy Johnson, Reece Sheersmith and Julia Armfield, among others, discuss their various takes on the strange, weird, eerie and uncanny.
Write the uncanny – a free writing exercise on our website, to get you started with writing your own uncanny fiction.
Now open for booking:
Work in Progress: An Interactive Masterclass with Julia Bell, 30th November, £20
More courses are on their way – look out for them in our next newsletters!
Check our calendar for upcoming sessions of our Accountability Club, Short Story Club, and Memoir Club - online, for paying subscribers.