Faust Theme Research Articles

W laboratorium Fausta

Access to the extensive archives of Jan Dorman has allowed us to see the long-term presence of the Faust theme in Dorman’s theatrical explorations and to study and describe his last production: Walpurgis Night based on Goethe’s Faust (The Animation Theater in Jelenia Góra, 1986), for the first time. The paper is an attempt to reconstruct this production on the basis of manuscripts and typescripts collected by the director in his archive and the reminiscences of people working in the theatre. The archives create an intriguing afterimage of Walprugis Night as a production with an autobiographical dimension, marked by Dorman’s legend and fascination with his methods of work, an aura of mysticism surrounding the production and the director’s sudden death, less than a month after the premiere. Having extracted Dorman’s Walpurgis Night from the archive warehouse we can add another leaf to the history of the reception of Faust in Polish theatre of the second half of the 20th century.

A Romantic quest: Meyerbeer's adaptation of the Faust theme

The theme of Faust, the scholar who barters his soul to the devil, has undergone many transformations since it first emerged in the primitive theatres and chapbooks of the sixteenth century. The various strands of the Faust myth are reflected in the musical treatment of the story that became a recurrent feature of Romanticism, especially in its most popular and universal genre of opera. It may seem surprising that Meyerbeer, the master of historical French grand opéra, should have an association with Goethe's great drama, but in fact the elements of the Faust legend are consistently at play in the scenarios of his operas. These operas share deeply in concerns that can be identified as overtly Faustian, especially in the mixture of modes that characterize their thematic and dramaturgical conception. Meyerbeer's operas are about religion, freedom of choice, destiny, and the nature of individual assent in the context of personal and other socio-political determinants. This piece seeks to examine the recurrent Faust motif, both as surface theme and as structural subtext, with significant implications for the scenic topoi and musical forms that Meyerbeer, working with his great librettist Scribe, used in realizing his very considerable existential and eschatological concerns.

Lives of Faust: The Faust Theme in Literature and Music. A Reader. 2nd, revised edition by Lorna Fitzsimmons

Lives of Faust: The Faust Theme in Literature and Music. A Reader. 2nd, revised edition by Lorna Fitzsimmons

Faust: Icon of Modern Culture by Osman Durrani (review)

MLR, ioi.i, 2006 299 there is still plenty of discussion of sponsors, publishers, editors, and press organs. The analyses of specific writers also give rise to wider-ranging analyses of cross-over genres such as the review, feuilleton, or war report; Stefan Neuhaus and Andreas Meier provide good coverage of literary criticism in the contemporary German press. To a great extent, therefore,despite its emphasis on the individual, the volume fulfils the self-appointed task of presenting its subject as part of an interconnected cultural, financial, and symbolic system. This is especially true of the chapters on the media thriller (H. J.Kleinstuber) and New Journalism (Heiner Bus). Cecilia von Studnitz's article on the changing image of journalists in German literature and in society, an update of her Kritik desJournalisten: Ein Berufsbildin Fiktion undRealitdt (Munich: Saur, 1983), furtherhighlights a theme which runs throughout: the productive, often aspirational antagonism with which journalists and 'literary' writers regard each other. In the final analysis, all the articles preserve a distinction between literature and journalism, however they are defined. None takes the levelling view that both could be seen indiscriminately as text or rhetorical acts. Although this possibility is men? tioned in the introduction with a very brief reference to Cultural Studies and the critical movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the only article that examines a similar approach in practice is Claude Conter's on Robert Eduard Prutz, who set out to write a history of German journalism in the 1840s. The sheer volume of available material overwhelmed Prutz, but he set an important precedent by presenting journalism as part of literature's democratization. Alongside Michael Meyer's study of Defoe and Reinhard Heinritz's contribution on Erasmus and Montaigne, Conter uncovers the shared disciplinary roots of Publizistik and Literatur wissenschaftand reminds us that the mass media and its associated issues are not as new as we might think. Vienna Deborah Holmes Faust: Icon of Modern Culture. By Osman Durrani, with contributions from Paul M. Malone, Derek Katz, Rolf Hellebust, Yoko Riley, and Derek Sellen. (Icons of Modern Culture Series) Robertsbridge: Helm Information. 456 pp.; 120 illustrations. ?45. ISBN 1-903206-15-4. Professor Durrani's engrossing Faust sets a high standard forthe series itinaugurates, portraying figures from myth and history who 'populate the collective consciousness and provide it with essential points of reference'. Few have invaded the public aware? ness as aggressively as Faust, or so accurately mirrored in their transmutations the receiving societies. Durrani firsttraces the evolution of the Faust theme, beginning with its sources in myths of the magus, in historical 'splinters' regarding itinerant charlatans, in al? lusions by Martin Luther and other Reformation theologians, and in popular 'devil books' of the sixteenth century. From there the story follows a well-trodden path from the chapbook of 1587 and Marlowe's Doctor Faustus to the prose versions of the seventeenth century. Durrani offersreliable recapitulations of the principal texts enlivened by extensive quotations, while assessing the differences between the Ger? man and English chapbooks or the shift from the Christian conflict of good and evil to Marlowe's view of Faust as tragic hero. The thoughtful discussion of Goethe's Faust is followed by a survey of Romantic Fausts, including the parodies by F. T. Vischer and Ida Hahn-Hahn. In the twenti? eth century the striving artist of Romanticism gives way to the seeker aftersocial and political activity. Oswald Spengler featured Faust, with his yearningfor totality,as the appropriate image of the modern age?an image perverted by Alfred Rosenberg for Nazi expansionism and applied by Thomas Mann in Doktor Faustus. While Valery's 300 Reviews Mon Faust (1946) exemplified post-war existentialist pessimism, Georg Lukacs and Ernst Bloch socialized the icon for use in the GDR. Durrani then traces the icon in non-literary modes, beginning with stage perfor? mances from the travelling players and puppet shows to the mammoth productions of the entire Faust at the Swiss Goetheanum or Hanover's 'Expo 2000'. Accounts of productions are accompanied by enlightening quotations from contemporary re? views. A chapter on music, from the early ballads and ballets to later symphonies, dozens of operas, and hundreds of lieder, is...

Changing Perceptions of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus: Criticism, 1947-1992

Ever since its appearance in 1947, Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus has generated heated reactions among critics. Whereas initial ideological differences stemming from the Cold War and the division of Germany have abated following the reunification of 1990, diverse opinions and controversies persist about Mann's daring treatment of the Faust theme. These include such topics as the political stance of the author and the historical dimensions of the novel; the biographical and autobiographical backgrounds of the work - especially in the light of the subsequent publication of Mann's diaries and private notebooks; the writer's sexual and psychological proclivities; the thorny issues of montage, collage, and intertextuality; musical concerns such as the extent to which the novel's protagonist appropriates as his own Arnold Schonberg's twelve-tone system of composition or the role of Mann's fellow exile and mentor, Theodor W. Adorno, in indoctrinating his pupil into avant-garde musical techniques; the degree to which the novel exhibits structural features of the music on which the narrative focuses; and the function of certain mythic prototypes for this modern parody in fashioning the fortunes and fate of Adrian Leverkuhn. A provocative and still unresolved question centers on the precise role played by Goethe's Faust<in the conception and execution of Doctor Faustus, in spite of Mann's assertion that his version of the legend had nothing in common with the work of his famous predecessor. Finally, the presence of strong visual elements in the novel leads to an assessment of the critical reception accorded Franz Seitz's film adaptation of Doctor Faustus (1982), a dicey subject in Mann circles, since few filmed versions of his novellas or novels have enjoyed an unsullied reputation. ~~~~~~~ JOHN F. FETZER is Professor of German Emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

The Faust Theme in All Men Are Mortal

The Faust Theme in All Men Are Mortal

Henry A. Murray: an appreciation.

Psychoanalysis might profit from Henry A. Murray’s need-press schemata or from his systematization of the concept of projection. Murray had the psychoanalytic training, the experimental know-how and the flexibility and vitality to create whatever the circumstances called for. That Murray is deeply imbued with an almost mystical need to search is evidenced by his life-long interest in Moby Dick—that romantic American version of the Faust theme. The Harvard Psychological Clinic Annex is called the Balleen, and an imprint of the mighty whale serves often as Henry Murray’s informal signature. There are frozen faced men who, with impeccable judgment, are ever ready to guard against the smallest error in irrelevant issues and who meet with a total lack of imagination every problem of importance.