The Double in Nineteenth-Century Fiction (Edinburgh Studies in Culture and Society)

Duality and the divided mind have been a source of perennial fascination for literary artists and especially for novelists, and this is seen to be particularly true of the Romantic generation and their later 19th century heirs. This book deals with the double, or "doppelganger" as a dominant theme in the fiction of the period, and with its relation to the problem of evil. It suggests that the literary double flourished best when psychological and religious understandings of human dividedness were in harmony and declined when they began to grow apart. Writers analyzed include E.T.A.Hoffmann, James Hogg, Poe, Dostoevsky and Stevenson and the final chapter relates the theme to the psychology of C.G.Jung. Duality and the divided mind have been a source of perennial fascination for literary artists and especially for novelists, and this is particularly true of the Romantic generation and their later nineteenth-century heirs. This book deals with the double, or Doppelgnger, as a dominant theme in the fiction of the period, and with its relation to the problem of evil. It suggests that the literary double flourished best when psychological and religious understandings of human dividedness were in harmony, and declined when they began to grow apart. Writers analysed include E.T.A.Hoffmann, James Hogg, Poe, Dostoevsky and Stevenson; the final chapter relates the theme to the psychology of Jung. Duality and the divided mind have been a source of perennial fascination for literary artists and especially for novelists, and this is particularly true of the Romantic generation and their later nineteenth-century heirs. This book deals with the double, or Doppelgnger, as a dominant theme in the fiction of the period, and with its relation to the problem of evil. It suggests that the literary double flourished best when psychological and religious understandings of human dividedness were in harmony, and declined when they began to grow apart. Writers analysed include E.T.A. Hoffmann, James Hogg, Poe, Dostoevsky and Stevenson; the final chapter relates the theme to the psychology of Jung Front Matter....Pages i-xi The Psychological and Theological Background....Pages 1-10 The Emergence and Development of the Double Theme....Pages 11-20 Terror, Pursuit and Shadows....Pages 21-46 E. T. A. Hoffmann....Pages 47-68 James Hogg....Pages 69-87 Edgar Allan Poe....Pages 88-98 The Russian Double....Pages 99-126 The Double in Decline....Pages 127-152 Into Psychology....Pages 153-161 Back Matter....Pages 162-174