Chapter 19 Demons and the Popular Press
in A Companion to the Devil and Demons, c.1100â1750Search for other papers by James Sharpe in
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This chapter considers how demons were presented in the popular press in early modern Europe, focusing on popular literature in England, France, and Germany between about 1550 and 1800. Identifying the products of the âpopular pressâ can be difficult, but this chapter focuses on four areas which had wide dissemination and in which demons figured prominently. Firstly, it analyzes the Teufelsbücher (devil books) which enjoyed considerable popularity in Germany during the second half of the sixteenth century. Secondly, it moves to witchâs familiars, perhaps best characterized as animal-demons, in English Elizabethan and Jacobean witchcraft tracts. Thirdly, it considers accounts of demonic possession, possession being perhaps the most dramatic phenomenon involving interaction between demons and humans. The final topic describes varying treatments of the Faust legend, including the original Faustbooks, then the later abbreviated adaptations of them as well as the ballads and puppet plays based on the Faust legend.