The Eternal Wanderer
Christian Negotiations in the Gothic Mode

This Element traces the development of the Wandering Jew myth from its creation to its spectral manifestations in Gothic mode.

Mary Going (Author)

9781009153423, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 January 2025

72 pages
23 x 15.1 x 0.5 cm, 0.117 kg

The Eternal Wanderer: Christian Negotiations in the Gothic Mode provides new ways of reading the Gothicisation of the Wandering Jew. It argues that early Gothic writing conjured iterations of this figure that reimagine and revise him, adding Gothic layers to a popular Christian myth that refuses to die. Drawing on the work of Carol Margaret Davison, Lisa Lampert-Weissig and Galit Hasan-Roken and Alan Dundes, whose studies trace the myth's development across history, folklore and literature, this Element studies the figure as an antisemitic, palimpsestic Derridean spectre and establishes early Gothic writing as a significant development in his continued spectral existence. By reading the production of the Wandering Jew in conversation with his historical and theological contexts, and employing theoretical traditions of spectralisation according to Jacques Derrida and Steven F. Kruger, this Element provides a dedicated account of Gothic iterations of this figure and examines its alchemical, Faustian and theological figurations.

1. Introduction: mythic beginnings and the spectre of the wandering Jew
2. Alchemical reproductions: St. Leon and St. Irvyne
3. Faustian incarnations: Melmoth the Wanderer
4. Theological transformations: Salathiel
5. Conclusion: gothic legacies and resurrections from Dracula to Melmoth
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]