Original scientific paper
The devil in literature: „A part of that force, which, always willing evil, always produces good.“
Florian Mittl
orcid.org/0000-0003-2848-0782
; University of Graz
Abstract
Up to this day, the devil is one of the most popular figures in literature. Sometimes scary and very often charming, he keeps entrapping and fascinating people. Friedrich Dürrenmatt states: “I have often thought about the unlucky fact that the devil is the most interesting German stage character.”
After a short history of the devil from a religious studies point of view, selected literary works and their concepts of evil are examined. This section deals with fairy tales as well as with literary classics (Dante’s The Devine Comedy, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Goethe’s Faust, Bulgakow’s The Master and Margarita) and suggests that the devil turns more and more into God’s involuntarily partner.
For Charles Baudelaire, “the greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist.” Thus, the combination of theological and literary insights in the last part should enable to determine whether the concept of a personal devil is still appropriate today.
Keywords
Devil; literature; Dante; Milton; Faust; Bulgakow; personhood
Hrčak ID:
115414
URI
Publication date:
30.1.2014.
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