sign in sign up
<<
Home , Doctor Faustus (novel), Doctor Faustus (play), Faust, Faust Overture

1

FAUST A Humanities Seminar

Fall 2015 Meets Mondays, 9:00-12:00 for 10 weeks: October 5 th - December 14th

Steven D. Martinson, Ph.D. Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Department of German Studies (LSB 308) The University of Arizona [email protected]

Course Syllabus

Course Description

“” is alive and well. Emanations of “Faust” appear in literature and drama, painting and sculpture, opera and music, film and cyberspace. He has excited the human imagination for centuries and has permeated numerous cultures worldwide. But who was this mysterious alchemist or learned academician who dared transgress the borders of accepted knowledge and revel in the world of darkness which the Church condemned and against which it warned? Not only Adam and Eve, but also Faust ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Perhaps Faust has a place in the human spirit and representations of Faust’s divided soul have something to say about human history. In this Humanities Seminar we will consider a wide range of that populate German and European literature, art, opera, and music and American movies and videogames. We will also search him out by surfing the Internet. While we certainly will spend time reading Christopher ’s Tragical History of Dr. Johann Faust and listening to Charles-Francois Gounod’s Faust opera, ’s “Faust”-, and Richard ’s Faust-, among other things, the main focus of the seminar is on those Fausts that are entrenched in German culture. Therefore, a significant part of the seminar is devoted to discussions of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Faust, including the often neglected second part of the drama. And we will look carefully at the novel, Doctor Faust, which wrote in exile, in Los Angeles, itself a devastating dissection and indictment of the rise of Nazi Germany. The course concludes with a discussion of the reception of Faust in American culture.

Session 1 (October 5th): “In the beginning…”

Introductions Course Syllabus

The Creation Story An Overview of the History of the Martin Luther, the , and the Devil Devil’s Literature 2

Session 2 (October 12th): On Good and Evil and Pacts with the Devil (Evil Angel)

The Faust Chapbook (1587), HISTORIA & TALE OF DOCTOR JOHANNES FAUSTUS. The sorcerer, wherein is described specifically and veraciously: His entire life and death, How he did oblige himself for a certain time unto the Devil, And what happened to him, And how he at last got his well-deserved reward. Rare revelations are also included, for these examples are most useful and efficacious as a highly essential Christian warning and admonition, that the laity, in order to protect themselves from similar maculations of the most shameful sort, have special cause to heed and to avoid such a desperate fate. [available at: http://lettersfromthedustbowl.com/Fbk1.html]

Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Dr. Johann Faust (1604; second B text, 1616)

Sessions 3 + 4 (October 19th – 26th): Reinscribing the Faust Tradition, or To Thine Own Self Be True?

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust. Part One and Part Two

FAUST Ah! Now I’ve done Philosophy, I’ve finished Law and Medicine, And sadly even Theology: Taken fierce pains, from end to end. Now here I am, a fool for sure! No wiser than I was before: …

3

Session 5 (November 2nd): Fausts in Music and Opera

Richard Wagner, “” (1839/40 and 1855) , The Damnation of Faust ( and Goethe’s Faust I [1845]) Franz Liszt, “” (1857)

Charles Gounod, Faust [1859 premiere; performance of October 22, 1883 at the opening of the New York City Metropolitan Opera (at Broadway and 39th

4

Session 6 (November 9th): Reconfiguring Reality: Expressionist Art and Film

F. W. Murnau, Faust (1926)

Session 7 (November 16th): The Devil, Faust, in Hell

Faust, , and Evil in National-Socialist Germany

NOTE: No Class on Monday, November 23rd = the week of Thanksgiving

5

Sessions 8 + 9 (November 30th – December 7th)

Thomas Mann,

Session 10 (December 14th): The Faust Story in American Culture Today

Faust at the Movies (“’ Advocate,” and “Bedazzled”) in Video Games (“Faust: The Game of the Seven Souls”) and Music (e.g., Robert Johnson, “Me and the Devil Blues,” Leroy Jenkins, “Faust Jazz Opera,” , “Faust,” and the Charlie Daniel’s Band, “The Devil Went to Georgia”)

6

Reading List (all books available through amazon.com)

1. , The Tragical History of Dr. Johann Faust. In: Doctor Faustus and Other Plays. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford World’s Classics) ISBN: 978-0199537068

2. Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust: Part One. Translated by (=Winner of the European Poetry Translation Prize). New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford World’s Classics) ISBN: 978-0199536214

3. Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust: Part Two. Translated by David Luke. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0199536207 [optional]

4. Charles Gounod, Faust. Gounod’s Faust, edited by Robert Lawrence. Literary Licensing, LLC, 2011. ISBN: 978-1258183981

Also available: Faust—Live in HD (2DVD)—Met Opera. See at: http://www.metoperashop.org/shop/faust-live-in-hd-2-dvd-met-opera-12555? gclid=CILNx73i2cUCFVKVfgodtZwANQ

5. Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkühn as Told by a Friend. Translated by John E. Woods. Vintage International, 1999. ISBN: 978-0375701160