Uncanny tales and erethic drawings
The social and pedagogical value of the representation of the uncanny in sequential narratives
Abstract
From art to entertainment, from anthropology to semiotics, the aesthetic and narrative fascination with the uncanny, the unknown and the uncontrollable has spanned human history. Magician, heretical artist, demiurge, alchemist and visionary designer, the human being has for centuries struggled with a visceral need to question, manipulate and visualise topoi that are beyond his ontological dimension and understanding, such as death, the afterlife, the generation of life and its origin, adopting literal and metaphorical languages, and abstract and figurative codes of representation. Taking up the psychoanalytic theory of the uncanny, already applied to explain the curious combination of the depiction of life and death in art, and the idea of the inanimate becoming animate thanks to a conceptual effort but also a technical gimmick, the article reviews the representations of the uncanny in sequential narratives, specifically in the fields of animation illustration. It invites us to reflect, therefore, on the value of these design fields as a form of psychological expression, a tool for social and anthropological investigation and, no less critical, a vehicle for transmitting life lessons, profound messages and pedagogically relevant truths. After a quick taxonomic and methodological excursus, the article analyses some examples of illustrated and animated narratives to testify to the variety of aesthetic and narrative choices, techniques and modes of representation adopted to narrate, invite reflection or visualise traumatic events and cultural taboos. The alienating effect of the word of the perturbing is an aesthetic and conceptual challenge that can be traced back to a "heretical" approach to the art of drawing, of which these representations reveal the breadth of linguistic choices that can be adopted, the psychological and social value and the educational power.
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