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Introduction

In: A Casebook Edition of The Diabolic Tragedy

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Professor Z

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 3–15

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004720626_002

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‘Professor Z’ opens the introduction by stating that the articles collected in this volume revolutionize our understanding of The Diabolic Tragedy. Postponing specifics in the first instance, Z proceeds with a rehearsal of how he would originally have introduced the story. That task complete, Z turns to the insights offered in the critical pieces and suggests that the articles challenge three main assumptions of his original reaction to the story. Firstly, the new critical works suggest that the influence on the narrative of the Marquis de Sade is every bit as important as that of Rousseau. Secondly, contrary to Z’s initial responses to the story and its characters, most critics have arrived at the conclusion that the last man and woman in the story are not brother and sister but mother and son. Thirdly, Z shares with us that a number of commentators have also arrived at the conclusion that the author using the nom de plume ‘Madame X’ was in fact a male author.

In the second half of the introduction, Z turns to the ominous nature of the story, which also gives the author the chance to offer up a foretaste of the volume’s contents. Z begins by discussing how a number of contributors fill out the story of the last man. What happened before the end-of-the-world scenario we are presented with? What happens next?, and so on. Switching to the contributors’ interpretations, Z discusses the different critics’ conclusions about the exact nature of the narrative’s dark latent content. The discussion generates a clear sense of how the different contributors, each armed with a different critical approach, arrive at radically different conclusions, although most converge on the idea that something fearful lurks beneath the surface of the text.

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A Casebook Edition of The Diabolic Tragedy

Critical Essays and Translation

Series: Mini-Monographs in Literary and Cultural Studies, Volume: 7

Cover A Casebook Edition of <i>The Diabolic Tragedy</i>

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004720626

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 16 Jan 2025

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

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A Casebook Edition of The Diabolic Tragedy

Critical Essays and Translation

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