Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Uncanny Fear of Bats in Batman Begins
The condition of fear – what causes us to be afraid and why – is a study that has continued to intrigue me since my junior year in college. What particularly interests me about Freud’s argument in The “Uncanny” is his suggestion that what an individual perceives as uncanny fear is rooted in a past (usually childhood) experience: “the uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar” (The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism 825). Freud’s analysis of Jentsch’s analysis (and subsequently Freud’s reanalysis) of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Nachtstücken reminded me of the creation and foundation of Bruce Wayne’s fear in Christopher Nolan’s 2005 film Batman Begins. Wayne’s fear of bats is also rooted in his childhood when he falls in a well and is engulfed by the bats. He, of course, is rescued by this father. For Wayne, this memory is intertwined with his profound love for his father. It will also be connected to his profound guilt for (as he perceives it) causing the murder of both his parents, since it is because of his fear of bats manifested the dramatic representation of them in an opera performance which causes his parents to take him out of the opera house and run smack dab into a mugger, who ends up shooting Wayne’s parents in front of him. As an adult, Wayne’s fear of bats is intertwined with his pervasive childhood memory of his parents and their murder; his love, guilt, and anger over what happened. The way in which Wayne then harnesses and utilizes his fear as a means of empowerment is also fascinating, but less in line to what Freud discusses in The “Uncanny.” Ultimately, however, I feel like Nolan’s film is an excellent modern demonstration of Freud’s analysis of the uncanny brand of fear and its source.
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Tauva, I think this is awesome that you mentioned Batman because I was thinking of that too!!! The idea of uncanny was fascinating because often times the idea of death was a scary concept to me as a child but later it became something fascinating, something interesting, something meaningful to me. The binary idea of birth and death played huge role in a lot of my arts and creative writing. I didn't really realize this until I read Freud's Uncanny.
ReplyDeleteTauva, have you read Kristeva's Powers of Horror? If you're interested in psychoanalytic theories of fear, I think you would find this book worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say thanks for the suggestion on Kristeva, Prof. Goodwin. I ordered it through link+ and have thumbed through it a little, but plan to start reading it sometime after Dec. 15! ;)
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