The Uncanny as the Intrasubjectivity in the (m)Other: Edgar Allan Poe’s “Morella”

This study investigates the contribution of the sense of the uncanny to the intensification of mystery in EdgarAllan Poe’s short story titled “Morella” using Freudian ideas as a backcloth. This paper aims to look at howPoe makes use of the psychodynamics of the characters at the intersection of the (m)other, death and theuncanny. In this sense, typical of Poesque literature is that his work is marked by tales of horror, mystery, themacabre, and morbid imagery; the sense of the uncanny is an indispensable part of a plotline which includessemantic loopholes and narrative ruptures. The unnamed male narrator of the story offers a retrospectiveaccount of his past memories from his marriage to Morella up to the death of his daughter, which reveals thatthis unreliable narrator suffers from a psychic regression by establishing intrasubjectivity with his wife. UsingFreudian epistemology, this paper will also discuss the ways in which how the mysterious bond establishedbetween this couple generates its uncanny effect. Such a reading of the short story is especially useful becausealthough much has been written on Poe’s representation of women and death, this paper aims to open up adiscursive space to discuss the operations of the psychodynamics of characters within the framework of theFreudian uncanny, which has not received adequate scholarly attention from psychoanalytic circles.