Rereading identity: the uncanny in Janet Frame's "The Carpathians"

Nancy Elizabeth Slagle
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:51:24 PDT

Janet Frame's ultimate novel, The Carpathians, joins the New Zealand tradition of literature of the uncanny, which has addressed the problem of post-colonial identity, though the novel's metafictional and psychological complexity are uniquely Framian. The work gains richness from a psychoanalytic reading with attention to the character John Henry Brecon, who claims authorship of the novel on its final page. As ekphratic author, he employs the uncanny mode, developing motifs and themes of heimlich and unheimlich set forth by Sigmund Freud's 1919 essay, 'The Uncanny.' John Henry's novel evokes uncanny sentiments through suppression and release of his subconscious and through uncertainty as to the location of reality. Literature fulfills John Henry's and New Zealand's needs to be haunted by a parental figure, yet self-sufficient. The novel examines three tensions: the linguistic and cultural self-repression of the Pakeha characters, the emotional barrier between characters; and the freezing of language to stifle emotion and creativity. During a surreal thunderstorm, John Henry breaks social, emotional, and linguistic barriers by converting uncertainty into the liberating emotion of fear. Frame's novel enhances the post-colonial relevance of uncanny literature as John Henry writes to redefine his community, himself, and his role as an author.