The faustian reincarnation in rick riordan's the lightning thief and the last olympian, michael dobbs' house of cards and the final cut and joe hill's horns

Abstract

Many studies have discussed the archetypical story of Faust, a dissatisfied scholar who sold his soul to the devil tracing it back the Germanic tribes and Biblical stories. This story inspires many writers, authors, poets and playwrights in both classical and modern literature. The Faustian archetype has reincarnated in postmodern literature in a new form that is characterized by a humanized devil whose humanization manifests itself in different ways, a Faustian quest for power and the acceptance of Faust’s reincarnations within the different levels of identity. This new form is present in Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief and The Last Olympian, Michael Dobbs’ House of Cards and the Final Cut and Joe Hill’s Horns. The thesis examines the three major elements of the Faustian myth: Faust, the devil and the relationship between them. The research questions are answered by conducting a comparative analytical study of the chosen postmodern literary works with reference to Goethe’s Faust as one of the archetype’s early reincarnation. This research aims to identify the archetype in the chosen postmodern works and to inspect and explain the shift in attitude toward its major elements. It depends on three theories: the infrahumanization theory proposed by Layens and his colleagues, Nietzsche’s Will to Power and the Self-Categorization Theory by Turner and his colleagues. While the thesis provides many new insights into the subject of the Faustian archetype and archetypes in general, it also opens new scopes in literature by highlighting new possibilities in the field