Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

52Demonic Texts and Textual Demonsbe able to expect questions about good or evil, spiritual or material, identityor falsity etc., to be thematised in the text.The next two chapters take some distance from the colourful history ofdemons and engage in more theoretically oriented discussions. The main focuswill be on the puzzling nature of the self; the previous introduction hasalready pointed out how the demonic is positioned as an enemy of a“proper” identity, trouble to the self. To approach the dynamics of this area(of non-identity, break-down of the self and language, of suffering and grotesquebodies) one has to create some understanding of what is negated, ortroubled by it.My analyses dealing with fictional narratives will begin in chapter four.These analyses are not “subjected” to theory; the relationship is reciprocal,and it should be possible for the reader to alter the order here, and read themore theoretical analyses after the analyses of fiction, for example. It couldbe claimed that the theoretical discourses have poetic and symbolic dimensionsof their own, and it is my aim to question the opposition between theoryand fiction. The “theoretical” texts dealing with the self and its troublesare also shown as contributing to its poetic and mythical construction.