Danubius International Conferences, 19th International Conference on European Integration - Realities and Perspectives
Sailing Through Shadows: The Double as a Mirror of Identity Crisis in Literary Fantasy
Last modified: 2024-04-24
Abstract
A recurring theme in literature, the doppelgänger explores the duality of identity, the hidenaspect of personality, and internal conflicts. Writers such as Fiodor Dostoievski, Guy deMaupassant, Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe used it to examine the darker sides ofthe human soul, with the double revealing contradictory facets of characters to express deepmoral or psychological dilemmas. This theme offers a wealth of interpretations and promptsreflection on the complexity of human nature, through the fragmentation of identity and the questfor self.
