Research Paper on:
Uncanniness in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

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the Uncanny in Henry James The Turn of the Screw by Tracy Gregory, September 2001 -- properly!  Henry James had a literary knack for the uncanny, which was immortalized in his 1898 novella, The Turn of the Screw. Was it a ghost story; was it  an example of a debilitating mental disorder; or was a collection of delusional images that existed only in the mind of a troubled governess? The term uncanny has been  defined as something weird or unfamiliar, often with heavily supernatural overtones. For the reader, it is an unsettling prospect, for it is never clear based on the details provided  in the novel what is actually happening. Therefore, at the conclusion, the reader is left to wonder what the authors intent actually was. Nobody "kept em guessing" better  than Henry James, who was truly the literary master of suspense. The Turn of the Screw was often referred to by its author as a combination ghost story and fairy  tale. However, there is a distinct sense that James was saying this "tongue-in-cheek," because the action is always subject to different interpretations. It is, first and foremost, a  Gothic novel, which sets the tone for the supernatural aspect of this uncanny work. The country estate known as Bly was described by the governess in her narrative as  being a somber place of secrets, with a strange sense of foreboding in the atmosphere. She queried, "Was there a secret at Bly--a mystery of Udolpho or an insane,  an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement? I cant say how long I turned it over, or how long, in a confusion of curiosity and dread, I remained where