Abstract
This article explores the dialectic of the uncanny in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Flemming, 1939) and Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009), treating the latter as a sequel to the former such that we encounter Dorothy first as a young girl and then as a grown woman. I observe that the uncanny entails a repressive and expressive moment that is cinematically rendered in these two films, and drawing on Freud and Žižek, I argue that in Dorothy’s evolution from Oz to Antichrist we see that the witches and wizards and gods and devils of our own minds are known to us most powerfully through the uncanny aesthetics of their repression and expression.
Recommended Citation
Elwell, J. Sage
(2012)
"There’s No Place Like Home: From Oz to Antichrist,"
Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 16:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol16/iss1/3
Included in
Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Continental Philosophy Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons