FAUST OR HAMLET? THE GERMANS have identified passionately with one or other archetype at different times. But why these particular figures, whose heroism is so problematic, rather than less flawed tokens of Teutonic virtues? Faust remains the obvious choice. His story surfaced in 1587 in an anonymous German chapbook, Historia von D. Johann Fausten. Shortly thereafter, Christopher Marlowe wrote his play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, beginning Faust’s metamorphosis from a legend to a myth and, finally, a meme.
For the predominant place of Faust in German culture we have, of course, Goethe to thank. Throughout his long life, the subject would not leave him in peace. His Urfaust was drafted in the early 1770s; Faust: A Fragment was published in 1791; the finished verse play Faust: A…
You're reading a preview of
The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 2023