Faust: Icon of Modern Culture (Icons of Modern Culture) [Hardcover]

Osman Durrani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2004 | Series: Icons of Modern Culture

This book explores the growth of the Faust story/myth from its roots in the Bible and medieval legends to today in music, theatre, film, literature and art. Each generation has re-interpreted the stories in the light of its own preoccupations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Professor Durrani's engrossing Faust sets a high standard for the Series it inaugurates, portraying figures from myth and history who "populate the collective consciousness and provide it with essential points of reference." Few have invaded the public awareness as aggressively as Faust, or so accurately mirrored in their transmutations the receiving societies. Durrani first traces the evolution of the Faust theme, beginning with its sources in myths of the magus, in historical "splinters" regarding itinerant charlatans, in allusions by Martin Luther and other Reformation theologians, and in popular "devil books" of the 16th 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 17th century. Durrani offers reliable recapitulations of the principal texts enlivened by extensive quotations, while assessing the differences between the German 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 of F. T. Vischer and Ida Hahn-Hahn. In the 20th century the striving artist of Romanticism gives way to the seeker after social and political activity. Oswald Spengler featured Faust, with his yearning for 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 Mon Faust (1946) exemplified postwar 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 performances from the traveling 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 reviews. A chapter on music, from the early ballads and ballets to later symphonies, dozens of operas and hundreds of Lieder, is followed by Paul M. Malone's capsule chapter on "Faust as Rock Opera" (by Rudolf Volz). The earliest images of Faust, decorating the chapbook of 1588, grew through the Romantic depictions by Peter Cornelius and Delacroix to the Prachtausgaben of the late 19th century and the obsessions of German Expressionists. Durrani appraises the impact of visual images on theatrical productions and the shifting focus from Faust to Mephistopheles to Gretchen. Faust was apparently the first book to be filmed (as early as 1896), and even before Murnau's Faust of 1926 over thirty versions had appeared. The appeal has continued, by way of Gorski's Faust with Grundgens, Coghill's Doctor Faustus with Richard Burton, and Istvan Szabo's brilliant Mephisto down to evankmajer's unsettling Faust of 1994 (discussed in Derek Katz's capsule sketch). The globalization of the theme - Faust's enormous popularity in the United States, England and elsewhere in Europe - is exemplified by Rolf Hellebust's capsule chapter on "Faust and the Russian Revolutionary Hero." While the modern imagination sees Faust as the prototype of the scientist who sells his soul in order to pursue his research, the subject also appeals to the hordes of tourists visiting museums in sites associated with his legend, and has spawned industries, from Mephisto shoes to Faust beers and cosmetics. Inevitably the theme has been reduced to comic books, from "Classics Illustrated" to such raw parodies as Flix's Who the Fuck Is Faust? or Karl Lagerfeld's trivialization featuring celebrities. The chapter ends with Yoko Riley's account of "Faust through the Eyes of a Japanese Cartoonist" (Osamu Tezuka). Derek Sellen's short story "Faustus and the Potters" concludes the book. While the volume offers original insights, its main achievement is the monumental one of assembling and integrating an enormous amount of existing material on the Faust legend, thus providing a well-nigh inexhaustible source enhanced by bibliographies appended to each chapter. The few comparable works are exhibition catalogues - e.g., Faust: Annaherung an einen Mythos, ed. Frank Mobus (Gottingen: Wallstein, 1996) - whose contributions by various hands, for all their authority, lack the coherence of Durrani's sustained and lively view. - PRINCETON UNIVERSITY - THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI

About the Author

Osman Durrani is Professor of German at the University of Kent at Canterbury and the author of other books on German literature

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: Helm Information Ltd (November 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903206154
• ISBN-13: 978-1903206157
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,745,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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