The Uncanny and Dystopian Fiction: A Psychoanalytical Reading of Ling Ma’s Severance

Abstract

Aim of the study: This research examines the expression of the Freudian uncanny in Ling Ma’s novel, Severance and the study reveals how the novel blurs the boundary between the familiar and the strange. Candace Chen, serves as a metaphor for the issues of alienation, emotional detachment, and obsessive repetition, all of which are common in late capitalist civilizations. This study broadens our understanding of how futuristic fiction can serve as a mirror for internal human struggles.

Methodology: This research uses a qualitative analytical method to investigate the Freudian idea of the uncanny in Ling Ma's Severance. This analysis's primary goal is to show how unconscious urges, suppressed memories, and the resurgence of the suppressed materialize in the futuristic dystopia of Severance, where psychological alienation is examined against the backdrop of social breakdown and the pandemic.

Findings: By using Freudian Psychoanalysis and his theory of the uncanny, this research has proved how Severance deconstructs traditional conventions and narratives of the dystopian fiction and unveils deeper psychological aspects hidden under the masks of routines, memory, and identity. Severance. Instead of using spectacular violence or intense narrative, Ma offers a quiet horror of the stillness and repetition along with internalized collapse. The novel rejects the idea of having a great hero. It replaces it with a psychological realism that centers not on action but on numbness, emotional alienation, and subtle horrors of daily life in the modern world.

Conclusion: This study concludes that Severance subverts dystopian and zombie genre conventions by prioritizing psychological realism over spectacle. Through the uncanny, Ling Ma exposes how modern subjects internalize trauma and alienation, suggesting that the true dystopia lies not in societal collapse but in the persistence of emotionally hollow routines.