Goethe's Faust and European Epic: Forgetting the FutureCamden House, 2007 - 276 sider A reassessment of genre that fills a major gap in Goethe's oeuvre and initiates a radically new reading of Faust. Goethe has long been enshrined as the greatest German poet, but his admirers have always been uneasy with the idea that he did not produce a great epic poem. A master in all the other genres and modes, it has been felt, should have done so. Arnd Bohm proposes that Goethe did compose an epic poem, which has been hidden in plain view: Faust. Goethe saw that the Faust legends provided the stuff for a national epic: a German hero, a villain (Mephistopheles), a quest (to know all things), a sublime conflict (good versus evil), a love story (via Helen of Troy), and elasticity (all human knowledge could be accommodated by the plot). Bohm reveals the care with which Goethe draws upon such sources as Tasso, Ariosto, Dante, and Vergil. In the microcosm of the "Auerbachs Keller" episode Faust has the opportunity to find "what holds the world together in its essence" and to end his quest happily, but he fails. He forgets the future because he cannot remember what epic teaches. His course ends tragically, bringing him back to the origin of epic, as he replicates the Trojans' mistake of presuming to cheat the gods. Arnd Bohm isAssociate Professor of English at Carleton University, Ottawa. |
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... example for the destructive interaction of audience and author was present to Goethe's awareness in the example of Torquato Tasso , whose lofty ambitions were so cruelly scorned by his contempor- aries . A second and more serious reason ...
... example of the crossover from epic to drama was Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg's Ugolino ( 1768 ) . Not to be underestimated is the influ- ence of operas ; Aeneas's abandonment of Dido was an extremely popular story . For an overview ...
... example sulphur , mercury , and salt . The new system did not immediately supplant the old ; the two paradigms competed for authority and made for some confusion ; 68 indeed , they contend in the passage just quoted . The four elements ...
Innhold
The System of European Epic | 20 |
Faust and Epic History | 36 |
The Roots of Evil | 87 |
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