Seeking Meaning for Goethe's Faust

Description

Faust stories are found across the ages and the arts. From its earliest to most recent expressions, the Faust figure continues to capture our imagination, dealing with problems and themes that are still relevant for a twenty-first century audience. Of the many variations on the Faust-myth, Goethe's remains especially provocative and laden with meaning and is the work most responsible for determining the subsequent character of the Faust archetype. His Faust reflects an individual who asserts, yet wrestles unrelentingly with the futility of faith, the bankruptcy of knowledge, and the loss of meaning. One of the greatest texts of both German and world literature, Faust, Parts I and II, confronts us with pressing questions about rebellion and suffering, faith and its loss, reality and simulation, order and chaos, weakness and power, technology and human improvement. This monograph offers a new interpretation of Goethe's famous play, emphasising its continuing significance today.

J.M. van der Laan is Professor of German at Illinois State University, USA.

'Seeking Meaning for Goethe's Faust is a welcome reminder of the modernity and post-modernity of Goethe's greatest work, and of the extent to which it has permeated world culture. Van der Laan is very well-informed, not only about the enormous range of interpretations to which the form and content of Goethe's "Faust" have been subjected, but also about the ethical, philosophical, religious, and historical issues that they raise. A particular strength of the book is its author's unsurpassed knowledge of the use of Goethe's work by later writers, artist, and musicians all over the world and down to the present time.' - Professor Nicholas Boyle, University of Cambridge -Mention. The Chronicle of Higher Education/ July 13, 2007 "Intriguing and well argued, this scholarly book offers many interesting perspectives. Summing up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -CHOICE "Van der Laan is well-read, and his readings consistently profit from his erudition. Moreover, he is adept at tracing both Goethe's possible sources and the persistence of the Faust problematic in literature post-Goethe." - Paul Fleming, Monatshefte, Vol. 100 No. 3, 2008 "To the proponents of 'provision reform' in today's UK higher education, who believe there is no room in undergraduate teaching for Goethe's text, van der Laan's book should prove an eye-opener, and it has much to offer the serious reader of Faust as well." - Paul Bishop, The Journal of European Studies, March 2008