What is meant by the 'uncanny'?

The 'uncanny', in literature (particularly Gothic literature) is a term used to describe the familiar being made unfamiliar. Stemming from Freudian psychology it described how something which is recognisable, is in some way altered or placed in a context that makes it strange and unnerving. An example of the 'uncanny' in literature is The Creature in Frankenstein: it is made to be a human, it has the emotions of a human, it can articulate like a human- yet is horrific due to the circumstances of its creation. It is at once human and inhuman, familiar and unfamiliar. Whilst much of Freudian psychology has been discredited by contemporary psychoanalysis, ideas such as the 'uncanny' are still useful as literary theories. Likewise, concepts such as the 'uncanny' can also be usefully applied to works written before Freud's time, such as the aforementioned Frankenstein.