The 'Coincidentia Oppositorium' in douglas Gordon's art installation 'Between Darkness and Light (after William Blake)'

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Literary Studies (MA)

Quandt, Maudi (2015)

The 'Coincidentia Oppositorium' in douglas Gordon's art installation 'Between Darkness and Light (after William Blake)'

Master thesis | Literary Studies (MA)

This essay is an attempt to analyse and interpret the art installation Between Darkness and Light (after William Blake) by the Scottish visual artist Douglas Gordon. The installation shows two movies, The Exorcist by William Friedkin (1973) and The Song of Bernadette (1943) by Henry King, projected from either side onto a freestanding screen in the middle. The two main characters in the films, Regan in The Exorcist and Bernadette in The Song of Bernadette, are possessed. Regan is possessed by the evil demon Pazuzu and Bernadette sees Marian appartitions. For the analyses of the two films separately I make use of (post) Freudian ideas, whereas I interpret the entire installation from a Jungian point of view.

Douglas Gordon

demonic possession

the Great Mother archetype

The Exorcist

The Song of Bernadette

coincidence of opposites