ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Beyond the Human: Nature, Uncanniness, and Gothic Atmosphere in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

This paper revisits The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by considering it through the concept of the ecological uncanny. Although the previous criticism frequently developed a psychological manner to explain the uncanny after Freud brought forth the concepts of repression and recollection of the familiar, this paper contends that Poe finds uncanniness in the material world. In the novel, the sea is not just the place where the human fear is projected, but it is the overwhelming power that disturbs the human power, rational organization, and chronology. By reading considerately, it becomes clear that the novel presupposes the idea of vulnerability of bodies, disorientation of space, and boundaries of scientific knowledge, which demonstrate the weakness of human control in large ecological systems. When Poe is presented together with ecocritical and posthuman thought, the study suggests that the Gothic novel ambiance is a result of a troubled awareness of the fact that human beings are at a loss to acknowledge the presence of things that are beyond their understanding. It is here that the ecological uncanny as a restructuring of Poe can be introduced to take a new shape outside the psychological explanations of him.