An Unheimlich Wanderer: Mick’s Spatial Anxiety in Carson McCullers’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Abstract

ABSTRACTSpace and anxiety are intimately intertwined, as is reflected in Carson McCullers’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. This article focuses on one of the main characters Mick Kelly, who, throughout the novel, is beset by spatial anxiety which in essence stems from the unhomely feeling. It firstly defines the German terms, namely heimlich and unheimlich, examining the way in which spatial anxiety is represented in and out of the house. Furthermore, the possible causes pertaining to politics in the house and the conflict between private and public spaces are determined. It is worth nothing that spatial anxiety is a universal experience of humans, which resonates with Lukács’s “transcendental homelessness.” By explicating Mick’s various strategies for dispelling spatial anxiety, it is concluded that mapping, in the metaphorical form of projecting and wandering, constitutes an effective way to cope with spatial anxiety, when a sense of disorientation permeates the modern labyrinthine world. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1. All the quotations from this source are my translation.2. Here, the German term unheimlich is translated into English as “uncanny.”3. Unheimlichkeit is the noun form of unheimlich, which could be translated as “uncanniness.” The reason why I insist on using those German terms is that the English terms “uncanny” and “uncanniness” are not exact equivalents of the German ones by which I intend to emphasize their relation to the home. Besides, in German, all the nouns e.g. Heimlichkeit and Unheimlichkeit should be capitalized, as is shown in this article.