Editing Homunculus (section)

===Early literature===
[[File:Faust image 19thcentury.jpg|thumb|upright|19th-century engraving of Wagner and Homunculus from Goethe's ''Faust II'']]
Homunculi can be found in centuries worth of literature. These fictions are primarily centred around imaginative speculations on the quest for artificial life associated with [[Paracelsianism|Paracelsian]] alchemy. One of the very earliest literary references occurs in [[Thomas Browne]]'s ''[[Religio Medici]]'' (1643), in which the author states:
{{blockquote|I am not of Paracelsus minde that boldly delivers a receipt to make a man without conjunction,&nbsp;...<ref>Thomas Browne. ''Religio Medici''. 1643. Part&nbsp;1: 35</ref>}}
The fable of the alchemically-created homunculus may have been central in [[Mary Shelley]]'s novel ''[[Frankenstein]]'' (1818). Professor [[Radu Florescu]] suggests that [[Johann Konrad Dippel]], an alchemist born in [[Frankenstein Castle]], might have been the inspiration for Victor Frankenstein. German playwright [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]'s ''[[Faust, Part Two]]'' (1832) famously features an alchemically-created homunculus.<ref>See ''Poet lore; a quarterly of world literature'' 1889 p. 269ff [https://archive.org/stream/poetlorequarterl13bost#page/268/mode/2up  ''A Faust Problem: What was the Homunculus?''] and Faust by Goethe [https://archive.org/stream/fausttragedytran00goetuoft#page/352/mode/2up/search/Homunculus Faust p. 350ff]</ref> Here, the character of Homunculus embodies the quest of a pure spirit to be born into a mortal form, contrasting Faust's desire to shed his mortal body to become pure spirit. The alchemical idea that the soul is not imprisoned in the body, but instead may find its brightest state as it passes through the material plane, is central to the character.<ref>{{cite journal|last = Latimer|first = Dan|title = Homunculus as Symbol: Semantic and Dramatic Functions of the Figure in Goethe's Faust|publisher = The Johns Hopkins University Press|journal = MLN|volume = 89|issue = 5|year = 1974|pages=814|doi=10.2307/2907086|jstor = 2907086}}</ref>
[[William Makepeace Thackeray]] wrote under the pen name of Homunculus.<ref>[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011984771 John Bull and his wonderful lamp: a new reading of an old tale] by Homunculus.</ref>