The Marvelous and Uncanny:　Comparative Study of the Imaginary

Keywords

marvels,uncanny,imaginary

Objectives

As defined by Tzvetan Todorov in “The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre ” (1970), the terms “marvelous” and “uncanny” were considered to be categorized in fantastic literature, or so-called fantasy, which described the phenomena that could not exist in the natural world. As the modern reason developed, “supernatural phenomena” and “unidentified creatures” that could not be explained scientifically became categorized as the occult. In the early-modern times or before, however, “marvelous” that was mysterious but could exist somewhere in the world, examples of which were cynocephalus and unicorns, was used in Europe and the Middle East as part of the knowledge of the natural history that should not be denied as a fantasy. In East Asia, “uncanny” was generated by the psychological disturbance occurring when people tried to explain preternatural phenomena actually experienced by them or unnatural objects.
　
This research will comparatively study how people’s psychology and imagination work in relation to foreign lands or the supernatural world, the relation between discourse and visually symbolized objects, and the changes in the imaginative geography. The results of this research will be presented at a special exhibition of the National Museum of Ethnology.

Research Results

Since the beginning of this research project, we emphasized that we should pay particular attention to the usage and context of terminology appearing in primary materials such as mirabilia, marvel, wonder, prodigy, ʿajāʾib, kaii (uncanny), and mononoke (spirits), and avoid the uncritical use of expressions such as “yokai of the Muslim world”.
As Masanobu Kagawa (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History) said at the workshop on February 7, 2016, the “marvelous” and “uncanny” are “concepts that should be contraposed in the sense that they were both considered as “strange and rare occurrences worthy of being recorded.” Over the course of many research presentations and discussions, researchers specializing in marvels and researchers specializing in the uncanny reached the conclusion that it is possible to roughly define analytical concepts that lie in the center of the “magnetic field” of their respective objects of research. Specifically, “marvels” can be said to be rare, unknown phenomena that are temporally and geographically distant, while “uncanny” can be said to be unusual phenomena whose abnormality stands out because it can happen in familiar surroundings or is out of line with a familiar everyday occurrence.
We found that, depending on the individual case, the Japanese word kaii (“uncanny”) was sometimes a better fit for cultural phenomena in Europe and the Middle East—the cultural area of “marvels,” while certain cases in East Asia—the cultural area of the “uncanny”—came closer to the meaning of kyoi (“marvel”) of the monotheistic world. It may also be possible to use the terms “marvelous uncanny” or “uncanny marvel” to refer to cases where the definitions overlap.
Furthermore, a common understanding that emerged was that it was problematic to use the word “supernatural” as an overarching term applying to anything with some kind of transcendent powers which humans have imagined to explain mysterious phenomena that deviate from their intuitive understanding of nature. We also found that the term “supernatural” is based on the early modern Western concept of “nature,” and today it has taken on a negative connotation to refer to “things thought not to exist according to natural science.” In other words, what is included in “nature” (the relationship between the transcendental, natural environment, and humans) differs in Christian, Muslim, and East Asian worldviews, so the idea of “entities that transcend nature” does not apply to “marvels” in the Muslim world and the “uncanny” in East Asia. Our examination of marvels and the uncanny within the context of natural understanding in each period and cultural area will be compiled in a collection of papers on the research results.