The Impact of Freudian Uncanny on the Reliability of the Traumatic Testimony in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Penned by one of the eminent poets and founding figures of British Romanticism, The Rime of Ancient Mariner has been analyzed in different ways since its composition in ۱۷۹۸. The ineluctable interconnection between unreliability of traumatic testimony, Freudian "Uncanny", and the psychological problems of the narrator, though, has not been addressed that much yet. The current study will attempt, in drawing on Freudian "Uncanny", to trace the etiology of the uncanny events to psychological and mental issues rather than supernatural phenomena. It will be contended that the ancient mariner's traumatic testimony, narrativized with the intention of "working-through" (LaCapra, p. ۴۲) and gaining "a greater sense of control and agency" over his trauma (Husvedt, para. ۳۳), is unreliable and far from being an accurate representation of the events on the journey. Therefore, even though certain traumatic events have taken place on the ship, it's not evident which events have actually occurred. It will be argued that such psychological problems as psychosis, dissociative amnesia, and memory distortion have detracted from the reliability of the traumatic narration. It will be concluded that the narrator has, in all probability, has unconsciously and unintentionally altered the testimony of what has happened in order to cope with his guilt and trauma better.

کلیدواژه ها:

Freudian Uncanny ، Traumatic Testimony ، Unreliable narration ، Psychosis ، Dissociative Amnesia ، Memory Distortion