NEW NOTES ON ""THE UNCANNY""

NEW NOTES ON ""THE UNCANNY"" The present paper expands the horizon of meanings associated with the concept of ""the uncanny"" (usually taken as an allegory for the return of the repressed). The narrative condition of the uncanny (or the experience of the limits of the ego), its relation to the primitive constitution of the psyche, the aspect of repetition, as well as its association with the ""fetish"" and the ""relic"" will be focused. It is our understanding that the concept of the uncanny should receive more attention from the psychoanalytic community. In fact, more attention and developments have been given to it from subjects as Linguistics, Literary Studies, Philosophy and Aesthetics, in general, than from Psychoanalysis itself Besides reflecting the neurotic functioning, the opposition homely/un-homely (uncanny) also refers to more primitive distinctions, such as self/not-self and inside/outside. The paper also addresses the romance The sea of fertility, by Yukio Mishima, so as to point out a singular aspect of the reading experience. Finally, the ideas of the fetish and of the relic will be analyzed from the point of view of the uncanny.

Rituals and Knowledge Construction: Ethical Dilemmas on Creating Oppositions

What is knowledge construction for? Mesopotamian rituals were practiced in order to grasp the future and guide war strategies. Nowadays, scientific rules are developed to avoid mysticism-constructing more accurate laws to explain the reality. Both rituals and science were, and usually are, grounded in a conception that to know is to decipher the correct meaning behind the expressive relief of the world. Contemporary studies on anthropology have shown that the opposition between nature and culture is the basis of a number of problems in human sciences aiming to comprehend the intricate relation between body and violence and overcome ethical dilemmas.