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This essay proposes a redefinition of the uncanny as an affect in order to foreground the implications of environmental texts from the perspective of postcolonial ecocriticism. I examine the conceptual history of the uncanny, beginning with Freud’s 1919 essay and the deconstructionist reconfiguration of the uncanny as literariness as such. The affective turn, I argue, encourages a re-evaluation of the Freudian uncanny as an affect rather than a personal emotional experience. With this theoretical discussion, I move on to an analysis of Doris Lessing’s two African stories. In “The Old Chief Mshlanga,” the uncanny affect arises when the protagonist-narrator “I” unexpectedly encounters a stunning African landscape beyond her parents’ farm. The uncanny affect conveyed by the African landscape suggests that African lands cannot be fully domesticated by white settlers and will remain as wild as they have always been. In “A Sunrise in the Veld,” the protagonist experiences a crucial moment of the affective uncanny when he witnesses a dying buck. The buck as a symbol for African nature dissolves the dichotomy between man and nature, evoking strong feelings of empathy in the boy and demonstrating the inherent connection between humans and non-human creatures.
