An Analytic of Eeriness

Stopford, Richard

Abstract

In this paper, I analyse the phenomenon of eeriness as a kind of strange aesthetic experience. Beginning with Fisher’s insight (The Weird and the Eerie, 2017) that we can distinguish weirdness and eeriness from uncanniness, I offer an original account of eeriness. I argue that eeriness is the appearance of an underdetermination in the spatio-temporal location of objects of experience, relative to experiencing agent; this underdetermination results in a destabilisation of the “horizon of object-ivity” within which we make sense of the objects of appearance. This has the existential consequence of destabilising the subject’s sense of being-in-the world. I ground the analysis in examples from both fictional and non-fictional contexts to indicate the generality of the analysis.

Citation

Stopford, R. (2024). An Analytic of Eeriness. British Journal of Aesthetics, 64(4), 483-504. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayad046

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 28, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jul 22, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 28, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 29, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 30, 2024
• Journal: British Journal of Aesthetics
• Print ISSN: 0007-0904
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2842
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 483-504
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayad046
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2992690