Lesson video

I'm Miss Howell, welcome to today's English lesson.

All you need is a pen and a piece of paper, so take a moment, clear yourself of any distractions and make sure that you have everything you need at hand for our learning today.

Our lesson for today we'll continue our exploration of the Gothic and we are in particular going to look at Sigmund Freud and "The Uncanny." Please take a moment to write down your title for the lesson pausing here to do that now.

Now please write down your key words for the lesson, which is doppelganger and the definition, pausing here to do that now.

We're now going to look at Sigmund Freud, who was an Austrian neurologist, he studied the brain and the founder of psychoanalysis.

The core idea of psychoanalysis is the belief that all people possess unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memory.

He believes that unconscious motives control much behaviour, he created an entirely new approach to the understanding of the human personality.

If you need to pause the video at any point to take any notes over the coming slides, please do so.

Freud is renowned within the psychology analytical world and some of his theories remain relevant to this day, he developed the clinical method for treating psychopathology, the scientific study of mental disorders.

Through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.

In 1899, Freud published "The Interpretation of Dreams." In this one of his most important works, he described dreams the form of wish fulfilment.

"The interpretation of dreams" is the road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.

Dreams, for Freud were the result of the unconscious trying to resolve conflict or express desires that our conscious minds do not allow to be acknowledged.

So he believes that our dreams reveal our true desires and as such contain important information about our minds.

One of Freud's most famous theories is the "Oedipus complex." This is one of his most renowned theories that he came up with.

This open analytical theory proposes a complexity of emotions around the young child by an unconscious sexual desire to the parent of the opposite sex, coupled with a wish to exclude the parent of the same sex.

Freud took inspiration for this theory from the Greek tragedy Oedipus the king, a harrowing tale about the King of Thebes, Oedipus who inadvertently fulfils his gruesome prophecy of bedding his mother and murdering his father.

We see the presence of the Oedipus complex and many of Freud's other theories embedded within an array of Gothic literature.

We are going to read an essay about another one of Freud's theories, "The Uncanny" This will support us in our analysis of Gothic literature.

The Gothic is all about exploring disturbing ideas and making the reader feel a sense of unease.

This is perhaps why it was so popular during the Victorian era, when disturbing theories such as the Oedipus complex were first being published.

We are about to read out extract for today's lesson, which is Freud's essay on "The Uncanny." This essay has been split into four sections, I've provided prompt questions to help you understand Freud's theory.

I would like you to record your responses to these questions on your lined paper, answering in a full sentence and where possible supporting your ideas with quotations from the abstract.

You will also need a different coloured pen or a pencil to self assess and check your progress.

A 100 years ago, Sigmund Freud wrote his paper on "The Uncanny".

His theory was rooted in everyday experiences and the aesthetics of popular culture related to what is frightening, repulsive and distressing.

Freud picks out a number of things that are associated with "The Uncanny" death, dead bodies, zombies, spirits, ghosts, doppelgangers, and magic.

Some of these are very familiar in the modern world, "The Zombie Movie" has now gained mainstream popularity.

Pause his answer the question.

In Freud's essay "The Uncanny" he defined the idea as that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar.

Freud acknowledges that "The Uncanny" should be understood to be related to terror and dread.

He knows that peculiar etymology of the German term and its close relations to an antonym The last term entirely unfamiliar, but in Germany it has shaped the meaning that merge into its opposite.

That's "The Uncanny" is or can be associated with that which is familiar to us in spite of the dread that it evokes.

Pause here to answer the question.

Oh, it also touches upon the notion of double or as it is better known doppelganger.

Freud writes that doppelgangers can be found in mirrors, shadows, guardian spirits, with the belief in the soul and the fear of death.

The idea of the eternal soul allows us an energetic denial at the power of death.

This was the first double of the body from having been an assurance of immortality, it becomes "The Uncanny" harbinger of death.

Pause his answer to the question.

Gothic novels are full of such uncanny effects simultaneously frightening, often familiar and yet also strangely familiar.

A path that should be over and done with suddenly erupts within the present and deranged it.

A ghost is something from the past that is out of its proper time or place, and which brings with it a demand a curse or a plea.

Ghosts, like Gothic novels, disrupt our sense of what is present and what is past.

What is ancient and what is modern.

Pause and answer the question.

Now we will review your answers.

Using your different coloured pen, use this to edit or refine your answer as we go through the correct answers.

Please make sure to check that your answers are in full sentences, and that you have where possible, use quotations to support your ideas.

If you have anything to add, please pause the video as when you need to as we go through each answer to allow yourself to do this.

So now to answer number one, Sigmund Freud gained inspiration from events that were frightening, repulsive and distressing that he observed in everyday experiences and the aesthetics of popular culture.

These theories remain present in modern popular culture such as the zombie scene in many modern films. To number two, the terror and dread in "The Uncanny" is relevant to us, even in modern time, as it evokes a sense of familiarity.

Freud was able to find that relatable qualities in non human forms, such goals, monsters and apparition.

Then, for number three, the first example is the double as a body or doppelganger was theorised by Freud to be the human belief of an eternal soul living within.

Freud believed that the concept of the soul was created by humans due to their innate fear of death.

So allowing them an escape into a false assurance of immortality, masking the looming dread of mortality.

And then finally, in answer to number four.

Uncanny figures such as ghosts distort and disrupt our concepts of the past and present because they represent something so frightening and unfamiliar, strangely familiar.

It is this confusing familiarity that jars the individual causing them to lose their grip on reality.

An example of this the arrival of a ghost something from the past, and then through its proper time or place, because it infiltrates the present and serves to distort our view of it.

So when we look at "The Uncanny," we see the features and themes of "The Uncanny" calm and again in prominent pieces of Gothic literature.

I would like you to think about the relevance of "The Uncanny" to the two Gothic texts that we've covered today.

"Dr.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "The Tell Tale Heart." What features of "The Uncanny" do we see in them? I'd like you to state and explain at least one example.

Pause here to complete the task.

Now we will review your answer.

So taking a different coloured pen, I would like you to write down the answers for each text and how "The Uncanny" applies even if he did not look at that particular text, it would be great for your notes to have the understanding of how "The Uncanny" applies to the text that we've studied so far this unit.

Remember, just pause the video as and when you need to to allow yourself to do this.

During "The Tell Tale Heart," Edgar Allan Poe uses the man's eye to evoke fear and repulsion in the narrator.

This leads to Freud's theory of "The Uncanny," it was the stare of the old man that was a parent narrator, not the man himself.

The man was strangely familiar to narrator creating a jarring sense of dread surrounding the eye.

Then in "Dr.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Hyde routine murders the old man with his cane which is frightening, repulsive and distressing.

To us what is familiar and normal to men on an evening stroll soon becomes an experience of terror and dread for the victim and a maid who has to witness of violent scene unfold before her eyes.

Now we have reviewed our answers you need to, in your own words, define "The Uncanny" and give an example to support your explanation based on what we have learned in this lesson.

Pause the video here to complete your task.

Now we will review your answer.

Using your different coloured pen, identify your answer as we go through the correct response.

Pause the video as and when you need to, to allow yourself to do this.

So hopefully you were able to summarise "The Uncanny" as follows.

"The Uncanny" is they're repeatable psychoanalytical theory produced by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.

It proposes that the creation of terrifying fictional figures and events are due to the prominence of the human emotions of fear, dread and uncertainty.

An example of this is the doppelganger rule integration by the fear of death.

The popularity of such gruesome fiction in Gothic literature is due primarily to its reliability.

We are drawn to this as it speaks our own demons that live deep within us.

Once you have edited your own response, and you've got a definition of "The Uncanny" from our learning today, that brings us to the end of our lesson.

I hope you have enjoyed learning today and thank you for your focus.