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The (Un)Traditionalist: Clive Barker’s Devil 193writing from its traditional sources. As a study of evil this early work clearlyhas had an effect on how evil is depicted in Barker’s influential horror storiesand movies. He also makes use of the devil in a more general context, tocharacterise the aims of his work.I think one of the things that’s been missing from monster movies of recentyears is that, for the most part, the monsters themselves have beendumb. [...]Evil is never abstract. It is always concrete, always particular and alwaysvested in individuals. To deny the creatures as individuals the right tospeak, to actually state their cause, is perverse – because I want to hear theDevil speak. I think that’s a British attitude. I like the idea that a point ofview can be made by the dark side. 4Clive Barker is not simply advocating here an interpretation of theDevil as a real individual; the play partly contradicts and complicates suchideas. In many points in the play it is emphasised that the Devil is not a humanbeing and to conceive of him as such would be a mistake. 5 The structureof the play is fragmentary, it consists of four acts that divide into overtwenty scenes. These take place over the span of three thousand years andcover various geographically unconnected sites such as ancient Russia, aGreek settlement in North India, and sixteenth century Lucerne. Barker’sDevil is interesting precisely because it is not a fixed individual with clearcutboundaries, but rather takes different guises and is constantly changing. 6In this respect it is a liminal creature and closely connected with the questionsdiscussed in the first chapter.At the same time this specific incarnation of the Devil (one should rememberalso the title of the book, Incarnations) develops some personalityduring the play. This demonic character is unique in its position both as asubject with human attributes and an individual history, and as a superhumanprinciple, or force. In this latter, impersonal role the Devil is shown tobe a mere narrative device, “a point of view” to borrow Barker’s own phrase.He is an actor constantly taking up different roles on life’s stage, taking partin human suffering, but definitely not the origin of all evil acts, as in reli-4 Clive Barker, interview with Phil Edwards (“Hair-Raiser,” Crimson Celluloid No.1/1988; Barker - Jones 1991, 11).5 These include: “THE DEVIL: I have no self to be certain of. Understand that, and youunderstand me.” “SAM KYLE: A wife cannot testify against her husband. That’s the law.POPPER: That’s true. CATHERINE LAMB: M’lord, this is no natural husband and wife. [...]THE DEVIL: She’s too cruel. Too petty. SAM KYLE: (Quietly) Good. She’ll humanize you.Make you look a little more human.” (HD, 293, 350-51.)6 Barker’s Devil could easily have used as his motto the same quotation as SalmanRushdie from the study by Daniel Defoe (and not just his title, The History of the Devil):“Satan, being thus confined to a vagabond, wandering, unsettled condition, is withoutany certain abode; for though he has, in consequence of his angelic nature, a kind of empirein the liquid waste of air, yet this is certainly part of his punishment, that he is ...without any fixed place, or space, allowed him to rest the sole of his foot upon.” (Quotedas the epigraph of The Satanic Verses.)
194Demonic Texts and Textual Demonsgious fundamentalism. The Devil is there to guide the reader’s attention towardsall the cruelty that human beings have been able to inflict on eachother throughout history. Through his point of view we get a dark versionof history – which overlaps with the “history of the Devil” in this play. Amythical, immortal creature is evoked to give the audience a means of accessinto History on a superhuman scale. It is one of the paradoxes of “The Historyof the Devil” that the superhuman perspective reveals an uninterruptedtradition of inhumanity in humanity itself.“The History of the Devil” is not realistic theatre; the fast changes inscenery and fantastic events are implied by stylised action, changes of lightningand sound effects. In his production notes the author stresses that theplay should not sink into caricature. “This is not a dream-play; not a medievalmystery play, parading semi-symbolic figures for a moral purpose. It’s ahistory.” 7 In its combination of archetypal figures, such as the Devil, a“The History of the Devil” (the poster by Clive Barker; Barker - Jones 1991, 4).
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TAMPERE STUDIES INLITERATURE AND TE
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Tampere Studies in Literature and T
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ments, and also such further lines
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IllustrationsCover: “Possessed Re
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The BeginningsAnd Jesus asked him,
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The Beginnings 3mons form an import
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The Beginnings 5negative, demonic a
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The Beginnings 7chapter four), but
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The Beginnings 9scious conflict, fo
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The Beginnings 11that is produced o
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The Beginnings 13The History of the
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The Beginnings 15emphasised that su
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The Beginnings 17turalism,” but i
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The Beginnings 19the materials I ha
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1. The Ancestry of the DemonicÑH.
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 37The f
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 41- in
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 43Chris
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The Ancestry of the Demonic 51tween
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2. The Demonic in the SelfBut ancie
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The Demonic in the Self 55Individua
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The Demonic in the Self 57should be
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The Demonic in the Self 61A number
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The Demonic in the Self 65the nethe
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The Demonic in the Self 67sciousnes
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The Demonic in the Self 69influence
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The Demonic in the Self 71LEADER:Yo
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The Demonic in the Self 73Particula
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The Demonic in the Self 75NIETZSCHE
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The Demonic in the Self 77ing into
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The Demonic in the Self 79Nietzsche
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3. Unravelling the Demonic TextThe
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PART II
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114Demonic Texts and Textual Demons
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BibliographyA note on this bibliogr
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Index2001: A Space Odyssey; 207abje
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