Frued, The Uncanny - Kevin Keane

Sigmund Freud literary criticism focuses on a story called the “The Sand-Man” by E.T.A. Hoffmann. Freud analyses how an uncanny effect can be aroused by people, events, situations, and objects. In “The Sand Man” a child is faced with a childhood fear that haunts him through different stimuli he encounters through his life. Nathaniel, the child, becomes attracted to a doll and relives his fear of the sand man when the eyes are taken out of the doll.
Artistically, something similar can be seen by finding life to an inanimate object. In a Meret Oppenheim piece she creates an uncanny feeling with a tea cup that is constructed with fur. Fur is automatically associated with living organism and her use of it to create a tea cup is ironic and creates a sense of uneasiness.
Freud also states that the loss of one’s eyes that Nathaniel fears is related back to castration. In the Oppenheim piece one gets a sense that the skin and fur is removed from the animal. This process can represent castration if looked at in the Freudian view. Freud’s way of thinking brings a fresh process in analyzing the mind of the artist.