Storytelling and Literature

1. Storytelling and Literature Faust: an introduction Octoberber 16, 2018

2. Faust: The Origin • A real person named Jorg or George Faust, also referred to as Georgius and as Johannes Faustus. • He was a traveling performer or magician, thought to have been born around 1480 in the Württemberg region of southwest Germany, and to have died in the same region around 1540. • Benedictine scholar Johannes Tritheim mentioned in 1507 that he “has presumed to call himself the prince of necromancers," but who is in fact "a vagabond, a babbler, and a rogue, who deserves to be thrashed.

3. The German Source: Faustbuch • The principal German source of the legend surrounding Faust is the volume edited by Johann Spies in 1587 and published as Historia von D. Johann Fausten. • The first known English-language publication appeared under the title The Historie of the damnable life, and deserved death of Doctor John Faustusin 1592.

4. The Story of “the damnable life”(Faustbuch) • The basic story is about a magician who makes a pact with the Devil in return for superhuman powers, sexual pleasures, and arcane knowledge. As part of the bargain, the Devil requires Faust's soul and ultimately claims it by torturing Faust's body and dragging him to Hell. • The German Faust-Book aims above all atedification. It shows the awful consequences of a sinner’s deliberate commitment of himself to evil with a view to gratifying his pride, ambition, and lust.

5. Faust as a Renaissance Man • The historical Faustus had been a wandering scholar, and even his moralistic biographer was affected by the characteristic influences of his time. So the German Faust-Book allows its hero some slight touches of the Renaissance intellectual curiosity. The century was also that of the Reformation. So it was easy enough for the legend to acquire a markedly anti-papal bias.

6. P.F.’s Contribution to Faust story • P.F.’s own contribution to the legend went beyond the supplying of additional detail to the record of Faustus’ sightseeing. He also gave a distinctly stronger emphasis to the intellectual ardour of his hero. • P.F. was contributing to Faustus’ development into the representative Renaissance figure that he was to become in Marlowe’s play.

7. The Renaissance • the new learning: reviving and extending classical studies • Under the influence of this new learning, there evolved the ideal of the cultivated Renaissance man in whom all the faculties were harmoniously developed • the discovery of new lands and new routes: the boundaries of the known were being very rapidly enlarged • the new science was developing

8. Three Prominent Literary Storytellings of the Faust legend • Christopher Marlowe wrote one of his most famous plays based on the legend. in 1604 as The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus(1604). • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published Parts I (1808) and II (1832) of his poetic drama, Faust. • Thomas Mann wrote Dr. Faustus(1947) turning Faust into a cultural archetype.

9. Hubris • Hubris (/ˈhjuːbrɪs/ from ancient Greek ὕβρις) describes a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence inthe modern usage. • The proverb "pride goeth (goes) before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (Book of Proverbs, 16:18) • John Milton's Paradise Lost, in which Lucifer attempts to compel the other angels to worship him, is cast into hell by. • Victor in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein manifests hubris in his attempt to become a great scientist; he creates life through technological means, but comes to regret his project. • Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus portrays the eponymous character as a scholar whose arrogance and pride compel him to sign a deal with the Devil.

10. Byronic Hero • The Byronic hero is a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. • Byron characterized his own hero in The Corsair (1814) • That man of loneliness and mystery,Scarce seen to smile, and seldom heard to sigh— (I, VIII) • He knew himself detested, but he knew/The hearts that loath'd him, crouch'd and dreaded too./Lone, wild, and strange, he stood alike exempt/From all affection and from all contempt: (I, XI)