Walking by Night - Shedding Light on a Motif as the ´Aftermath´ of Disenchantment

Abstract

Beginning with an etymological approach to the connection between spectre, ghost, unheimlich, heimlich, uncanny, home, night, darkness and the unknown, fear, enlightenment and disenchantment, this paper seeks to establish a literary motif Walking by Night by analyzing a number of concrete examples from German, French, English as well as Taiwanese literature and attempts to come to terms with the question why the fear of spectre, especially in the European literature, just could not be deleted in spite of the quite successful enlightenment. In addition to fear, the combination of fear and enjoyment also plays a significant role in this article. Finally, in order to explore the metaphorical meaning of this motif in different circumstances this paper addresses some aspects of the undertaking of transforming a daily feeling into a motif of Walking by Night in the literature generally.