The Devil Is in the Details: Neurological Diseases Presenting as Religious Hallucinations in Two Literary Works

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-231
Author(s):  
Matheus Kahakura Franco Pedro ◽  
Thiago Ferreira Simões De Souza ◽  
Francisco Manoel Branco Germiniani
Keyword(s):  
Fyodor Dostoyevsky ◽  
Neurological Diseases ◽  
Delirium Tremens ◽  
Thomas Mann ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Western Literature ◽  
Doctor Faustus ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
The Devil

Few authors in the Western literature have acquired such a monumental reputation as Thomas Mann and Fyodor Dostoyevsky; although with different backgrounds and aesthetic peculiarities, their writings converge thematically in their frequent relationship with disease. From Dostoyevsky’s struggle with epilepsy to Mann’s descriptions of tuberculosis and cholera, many are the examples found in their body of work describing medical afflictions. One noteworthy similarity in their works is the presence of hallucinations with Mephistopheles-like devilish entities, possibly caused by neurological diseases: in Mann’s case, concerning the main character of Doctor Faustus, caused by neurosyphilis, while for Dostoyevsky, concerning one of the titular Brothers Karamazov, by delirium tremens. In both cases, the authors leave room for ambiguity, with the characters themselves casting doubts on whether their experiences were indeed caused by their disease or by an actual supernatural being. In this, we may find an interesting intersection between neurology and the literature.

scholarly journals Intertekstualiteit en die Bose in Kroniek van Perdepoort (Anna M. Louw)

Literator ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-38
Author(s):  
E. Linde ◽  
D. H. Steenberg
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Thomas Mann ◽  
Religious Literature ◽  
Sound And The Fury ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Constituent Element ◽  
Similar Theme ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
The Devil

In Anna M. Louw’s novel Kroniek van Perdepoort the primal conflict between good and evil is an important constituent element. Well-known authors in world literature have been fascinated by this problem, and it is an enriching experience to bring together allusions and to investigate points of contact with authors such as Feodor Dostoyevsky, Thomas Mann. William Faulkner and Patrick White. In Kroniek van Perdepoort there is a meeting between Klaas Kamer and the devil. Similarities between this meeting and similar meetings in Dr Faustus (Thomas Mann) and The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky) are pointed out.Subsequently the portrayal of sin in Kroniek van Perdepoort is compared with Faulkner’s novels The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!, in which a similar theme is represented.Patrick White is also an author of religious literature to whom Anna M. Louw is attracted by her own admission. His novels. The solid Mandala and Riders in the Chariot are studied, and similarities with Kroniek van Perdepoort indicated.

scholarly journals The esteem needs in the main character of ‘Me Before You’ movie

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1285-1298
Author(s):  
Diana Anggraeni ◽  
Herland Franley Manalu ◽  
Desty Anggraini
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Descriptive Data ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Status

Humans have gone through many incidents, both good and bad experiences, and sometimes these experiences are shared with others in the form of stories. The stories, as one of the forms of literary works, would be nothing without the created characters within them because they provide the viewers with a purpose and a reason for us to learn about what happens in the story. Besides, they act as one important element in the movie with various psychological effects. This research aims to analyze the characteristics and the hierarchy of human needs, especially esteem needs, that appear in the main character named Will Traynor in the ‘Me Before You’ movie directed by Thea Sharrock. This study uses descriptive data analysis which describes a phenomenon and the main character in the movie. The results revealed seven characters comprising the esteem needs hierarchy: sensitive, open-minded, friendly, kind, confident, humble, and stubborn. The esteem needs hierarchy is the desire to have the need to be approved, valued, and recognized to have some self-esteem. This is striking in the movie because of the status of the character, Will Traynor as a lord, and Louisa Clark who is only a maid and has no superiority over Will in her life. The findings imply the personality of humans differ in their characters and psychology as shown from the esteem needs hierarchy in Will’s personality expressing the different types of characteristics.

scholarly journals Thomas Mann - Gennem krigens sygdomme mod en ny humanisme

2018 ◽  
pp. 47-64
Author(s):  
Rasmus Navntoft
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Nobel Prize Winner ◽  
Thomas Mann ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
World War ◽  
Major Work ◽  
New Humanism

The German author and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann (1875-1955) perceived World War I as a moral battle against the civilization project rooted in the European enlightenment. Like many other German intellectuals of that time, Mann stresses an opposition between the concept of culture and that of civilization – this conflict is seen as inherent in the European soul – and defends Germany’s right to remain a culture that does not evolve into a civilization. The concept of culture can contain irrational features such as mystical, bloody and terrifying teachings, whereas civilization is characterized by reason, enlightenment, skepticism and hostility towards passion and emotion. In his major work The Magic Mountain (1924) however, Mann tries to overcome this opposition and displays, through the metaphors of the text, that a new humanism is dependent upon a mystical and completely illogical balance between culture and civilization. The main character of the novel does not succeed in finding this balance. But, nonetheless, Mann continues to see the possibilities of a new humanism through this perspective in order to point out a humanistic hope in the shadesof two European world wars.

scholarly journals A PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MAIN CHARACTER IN MARSIRAJI THAHIR’S KABAR BUNGA

Lire Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-164
Author(s):  
M Afifulloh
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Aspects ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Psychological Approach ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Psychological Analysis ◽  
The Impact

This paper aims to describe the female characters in the novel Kabar Bunga by Marsiraji Thahir, the conflicts and its causes, and the impact of the conflicts experienced by women in the novel Kabar Bunga by Marsiraji Thahir. This novel is examined by a psychological approach in literature, a literary approach that emphasizes the psychological aspects of the types and laws of psychology that can be applied to literary works. The data is qualitative since the purpose of this research is to explain or describe the phenomena of the researches deeply. The data were obtained by categorizing all the related dialogues in the story, then psychologically analyzed. Triangulation was used to validate the data.  After finishing all the steps of analyzing data, the interpretations were made based on the data and the theory. The results of the research were, psychologically, the main character in this novel is described as a person who often feels worried, frightened, keeping the reality up, and she is burdened by the problems faced. This portrayal is the representation of Wulan as a woman and woman emotionally and mentally is depicted as a weakness persona without having the ability to solve the problems.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Long Poem ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Elective Affinities ◽  
Lyric Poet ◽  
Significant Figures ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Modern Myth

Goethe was a statesman, scientist, amateur artist, theatrical impresario, dramatist, novelist and Germany’s supreme lyric poet; indeed he provided the Romantic generation which followed him with their conception of what a poet should be. His works, diaries and about 12,000 letters run to nearly 150 volumes. His drama Faust (1790–1832) is the greatest long poem in modern European literature and made the legend of Dr Faust a modern myth. He knew most of the significant figures in the philosophical movement of German Idealism (though he never met Kant), but he was not himself a philosopher. His literary works certainly addressed contemporary philosophical concerns: Iphigenie auf Tauris (Iphigenia in Tauris) (1779–86) seems a prophetic dramatization of the ethical and religious autonomy Kant was to proclaim from 1785; in his novel Die Wahlverwandtschaften (The Elective Affinities) (1809) a mysterious natural or supernatural world of chemistry, magnetism or Fate, such as ‘Naturphilosophie’ envisaged, seems to underlie and perhaps determine a human story of spiritual adultery; in Faust, particularly Part Two, the tale of a pact or wager with the Devil seems to develop into a survey of world cultural history, which has been held to have overtones of Schelling, Hegel or even Marx. But whatever their conceptual materials, Goethe’s literary works require literary rather than philosophical analysis. There are, however, certain discrete concepts prominent in his scientific work, or in the expressions of his ‘wisdom’ – maxims, essays, autobiographies, letters and conversations – with which Goethe’s name is particularly associated and which are capable of being separately discussed. Notable among these are: Nature and metamorphosis (Bildung), polarity and ‘intensification’ (Steigerung), the ‘primal phenomena’ (Urphänomene), ‘the daemonic’ (das Dämonische) and renunciation (Entsagung).

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