GNED 1201: Death in Literature Flashcards

A collection of vocabulary terms exploring psychogeography, the uncanny, and death-related themes in literature as discussed in the GNED 1201 lecture.

Psychogeography

The study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviours of individuals.

Guy Debord

An individual whose work in Paris in the 1950s attempted to analyze the behavioural impact of the city on people, tracing the origins of psychogeography.

Flaneùr

A wanderer or stroller whose activity of walking through the city enables them to stumble upon forgotten or abandoned places.

Genius loci

Also known as "spirit of place," this refers to an environment or setting imbued with a sense of the histories of previous inhabitants and the events played out there.

Uncanny

Defined by Freud as the transformation of something that once seemed homely into something decidedly not so, or when the familiar becomes eerily unfamiliar.

Unhomeliness

The fundamental propensity of the familiar to turn on its owners and suddenly become defamiliarized and nightmarish.

Descent narrative

A literary structure where a physical decline in the grounds reflects a character's decline or descent into madness.

Repetition

A particular characteristic of the uncanny emphasized by Freud, exemplified in literature by repetitive structures like hallways and doors that always slam shut.

Ray Bradbury

American writer ($1920$-$2012$) known for social criticism, runaway technology, and works such as "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Veldt."

Deathscape

An environment where death is vividly inscribed or ingrained into the landscape, such as the African veldt or the Canadian wilderness.

Margaret Atwood

Famous Canadian novelist and poet born in $1939$ who wrote "Death by Landscape" and "The Handmaid’s Tale."

The Nursery (Hill House)

A space that functions as a mother figure to Eleanor and symbolizes her obsession with thinking she killed her mother; it is considered the most haunted spot.

The Turret

A specific location in Hill House directly correlated with death where Eleanor feels the house has completely embodied her.

Spectre

In the context of "Death by Landscape," it refers to how the environment acts as a ghost or what an individual projects onto their surroundings, such as Lois projecting Lucy's absence.

Uncanny doubling/repetition

A concept where a character, like Lois in "Death by Landscape," embodies a living death and lives as a sort of ghost due to lingering guilt.