Uncanny Aesthetics in Kafkas Amerika or The Man who Dissapeared

Ship Dreadfully large ship Innumerable small rooms, corridors constantly branching off, short flights of stairs always followed by others. Lost in a labyrinth

Uncles House Six floors; three underground levels; two elevators; ten offices. Process of defamiliarization. (…) and from morning to evening and amid the dreams of the night there passed along this street an incessant bustle of traffic, which looked from above like a confused, constantly self-renewing medley of distorted human shapes (…) as though a glass pane covering the street

Mr Pollunders House As only the lower part of the house was illuminated, one could not tell quite how high it was They suddenly heard Mr Green calling down from the top step; beginning to mount the steps; as they mounted the steps

Mr Pollunders House Made the inconvenient presence of Mr Green doubly regrettable The smoke from Mr Greens cigar (…) spread through the room, carrying Greens influence even into the corners and crannies that he himself would never enter

Mr Pollunders House The door of my room is the fourth, counting from this door, on this side of the corridor. So you go past three more doors and the one you get to then is the right one Lying down had already become unbearable Slow progress, which made the way seem twice as long

Mr Pollunders House As the corridor seemed never-ending, and no window anywhere afforded a view, Karl was already thinking that he might be going in a circle round the whole house

Freud One may, for instance, have lost ones way in the woods, perhaps after being overtaken by gof, and, despite all ones efforts to find a marked or familiar path, one comes back again and again to the same spot (…) Or one may be groping around the dark in an unfamiliar room, searching for the door or the light-switch and repeatedly colliding with the same piece of furniture (The Uncanny)

Hotel Occidental Thirty elevators; many rooms, dining-rooms, gaming-rooms; seven floors. all the entrances to the hotel, that is, this main entrance, the three middle entrances, and the ten side entrances, to say nothing of the innumerable small doors and exits without doors

Hotel Occidental Dont you know that even the slightest absence from duty has to be reported in the Head Waiters office?

Conclusion: Freud and Kafka Unintentional return (The Uncanny) The impulsion to repeat Anything that can remind us of this inner compulsion to repeat is perceived as uncanny