Sansone, Andreas Kartak e la voglia della risurrezione

Starting from a poem, this paper consists of an exercise of comparative literature in which we will bring together two texts that emanate from radically different origins and dissimilar literary genre. We will deal with the biblical story in which we see the dynamism from Samson’s defeat to his final victory (Jud 13-16) and the famous novel The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1939) by Joseph Roth. Despite many differences and a total historical disconnection between the two texts, we will show how both stories converge to a common point: both narratives describe a natural human desire to surpass one’s own death. Death appears to the individual as a scandal or an absurdity. However, it also fascinates the individual who desires what follows death. Its immanence is a mystery and the Christian notion of resurrection thematizes what the desire is searching for.