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“Always the same stairs, always the same room”: the uncanny architecture of Jean Rhys's Good morning, midnight

Zimmerman, Emma

Authors

Emma Zimmerman



Abstract

Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight (1939) is a novel that returns obsessively to the uncanny architecture of the Parisian hotel, through providing insight into the deracinated experiences of protagonist Sasha Jansen, a woman existing at the peripheries of the interwar city. Strikingly, this uncanny architecture structures the narrative itself, in the form of frequent disruptions in temporality, stylistic negotiations of memory, and distinct fragmented typography. An architectural interpretation of Sigmund Freud’s “The Uncanny” (1919) provides a useful interpretive lens for the novel, which helps to draw out how the uncanny functions — both thematically and formally — as a spatial and psychological symptom of the deracinated modern urban condition. Working in conjunction with Rhys’s representation of memory, the uncanny architecture of Good Morning, Midnight challenges contemporary spatial theorists who posit the hotel as a key site for the liberating eradication of history, whilst also evidencing Rhys’s literary innovations in the interwar period.

Citation

Zimmerman, E. (2015). “Always the same stairs, always the same room”: the uncanny architecture of Jean Rhys's Good morning, midnight. Journal of Modern Literature, 38(4), https://doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.38.4.74

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 5, 2014
Publication Date Oct 1, 2015
Deposit Date Sep 16, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Modern Literature
Print ISSN 0022-281X
Electronic ISSN 1529-1464
Publisher Indiana University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 38
Issue 4
DOI https://doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.38.4.74
Keywords Jean Rhys; Uncanny; Hotel; Architecture; Modernity
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/760147
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.38.4.74

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