Postać Żyda Wiecznego Tułacza i jej modyfikacje w wybranych dziełach XVIII i XIX wieku

Abstrakt

The main goal of the article is to show the problems of physical immortality and unnatural life extension as a god’s punishment in popular literature from the end of the 18th and the 19th century. Appearance of the immortality myth in culture, historical development of “life extension as a punishment” motif and forming the legend of the Wandering Jew are parts of the work, which are an introduction to analyze some best known novels including the motif, such as The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Wandering Jew by Eugène Sue, The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell by Lewis Wallace and The Devil’s Elixir by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. The goal of this article is to show the most interesting visions of immortality in literature and the process of changing the legend of the Wandering Jew.