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Faust stories are found across the ages and the arts. From its
earliest to most recent expressions, the Faust figure continues to
capture our imagination, dealing with problems and themes that are
still relevant for a twenty-first century audience. Of the many
variations on the Faust-myth, Goethe's remains especially
provocative and laden with meaning and is the work most responsible
for determining the subsequent character of the Faust archetype.
His Faust reflects an individual who asserts, yet wrestles
unrelentingly with the futility of faith, the bankruptcy of
knowledge, and the loss of meaning. One of the greatest texts of
both German and world literature, "Faust, Parts I and II",
confronts us with pressing questions about rebellion and suffering,
faith and its loss, reality and simulation, order and chaos,
weakness and power, technology and human improvement. This
monograph offers a new interpretation of Goethe's famous play,
emphasising its continuing significance today.
This book documents and investigates the stories we have told and
continue to tell about technology-now the dominant feature of our
civilization-in fiction, non-fiction, film, and advertising. It
answers important questions about the meanings people ascribe to
technology, the hopes and fears we express in the different
narratives, the effect of those narratives upon us, and the new
forms of myth those narratives represent. Narratives of Technology
offers an approach grounded in the humanities, adding another
perspective to that of social scientists and technologists.
The first cohesive Faust narrative in facsimile form, German
transcription, and (first-ever) English translation, plus a history
of Faust illustrations and an assessment of Faust's historicity.
The Faust legend, which has come down to us most famously in
Goethe's tragedy but also in countless other incarnations since the
late sixteenth century, was first collected and presented as a
cohesive narrative (in manuscript) byChristoph Rosshirt during the
1570s. Rosshirt was also the first to provide illustrations of
Faust, hand-colored by Rosshirt himself. This book offers a
critical edition of Rosshirt's six tales, including an introductory
chapter,a facsimile of the manuscript, a transcription and
first-ever English translation on facing pages, as well as a
history of Faust illustrations, with Rosshirt's own illustrations
and other examples up through Delacroix, the most complete survey
of such illustrations to date. A final chapter rounds out the study
with an assessment of Rosshirt's significance for the Faust
tradition, a review of the evidence for a historical Faust, and a
rejection of his historicity (because it is unprovable) in favor of
his existence only in his story - a story Rosshirt helped to tell -
and in our imaginations that animate that story. J. M. van der Laan
is Professor Emeritus of German at Illinois State University.
New essays revealing the enduring significance of the story made
famous in the 1587 Faustbuch and providing insights into the forces
that gave the sixteenth century its distinct character. The
Reformation and Renaissance, though segregated into distinct
disciplines today, interacted and clashed intimately in Faust, the
great figure that attained European prominence in the anonymous
1587 Historia von D. Johann Fausten. The original Faust behind
Goethe's great drama embodies a remote culture. In his century,
Faust evolved from an obscure cipher to a universal symbol. The age
explored here as "the Faustian century" invested the Faustbuch and
its theme with a symbolic significance still of exceptional
relevance today. The new essays in this volume complement one
another, providing insights into the tensions and forces that gave
the century its distinctcharacter. Several essays seek Faust's
prototypes. Others elaborate the symbolic function of his figure
and discern the resonance of his tale in conflicting allegiances.
This volume focuses on the intersection of historical accounts and
literary imaginings, on shared aspects of the work and its times,
on concerns with obedience and transgression, obsessions with the
devil and curiosity about magic, and quandaries created by shifting
religious and worldlyauthorities. Contributors: Marguerite de
Huszar Allen, Kresten Thue Andersen, Frank Baron, Gunther Bonheim,
Albrecht Classen, Urs Leo Gantenbein, Karl S. Guthke, Michael
Keefer, Paul Ernst Meyer, J. M. van der Laan, Helen
Watanabe-O'Kelly, Andrew Weeks. J. M. van der Laan is Professor of
German and Andrew Weeks is Professor of German and Comparative
Literature, both at Illinois State University.
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