Fear mythologized: The Master of the Day of Judgement by L. Perutz

Abstract

The article deals with The Master of the Day of Judgement (1923), a novel by the Austrian expressionist writer Leo Perutz that has been tentatively described as a psychological murder mystery. Drawing on E. Meletinsky’s studies, specifically, his definition of neomythologism, the article considers the book’s various mythologizing techniques. Typical of modernism, such techniques as leitmotifs, allegory, and personification are used to convey the characters’ growing perception of fear as a living creature. Additional meanings are discovered in the references to such landmark works as Shakespeare’s Richard III, Büchner’s Danton’s Death, and Wagner’s cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. It is argued that the novelist uses Wagner’s method of allegory to create a mythologized image of fear, but, unlike Wagnerian images with their entirely universal meaning, Perutz’s allegory denotes the uniqueness and individuality of human mind.