Abstract

The uncanny is that which doesn’t sit with us not because it is too strange, but
because it is at the same time strange and familiar (Royle, 2003). Uncanny is not
otherworldly. The truly foreign, the ‘transcendent’ may easily be contained precisely
because it is not yet categorized and appropriated – it does not yet form part of an
established order. A foreign element – an idea, justification or reasoning transcending
all categories – may become a natural candidate to patch the holes in the current
sensemaking process (e.g. Pratt, 2000a). A notion which is exotic in a given context is
unburdened by and unrelated to its previous re-enactments, which makes it easier to
adapt to new organizational contexts, discourses and practices. For instance,
transcendental readings of organizational ‘reality’ became swiftly appropriated and
moulded into managed (managerial) organizational frameworks (Izak, 2012).
However, the strangely familiar – uncanny – slips between the categories, defies easy
classification...