Goethe's Faust and cultural memory: comparatist interfaces

This book is an interdisciplinary collection of essays examining Goethe’sFaustand its derivatives in European, North American, and South American cultural contexts. It takes both a canonic and archival approach toFaustin studies of adaptations, performances, appropriations, sources, and the translation of the drama contextualized within cultural environments ranging from Gnosticism to artificial intelligence. Lorna Fitzsimmons’ introduction sets this scholarship within a critical framework that draws together work on intertextuality and memory. Alan Corkhill looks at the ways in which the authority of the word is critiqued inFaustand Marlowe’sDr. Faustus.Robert E. Norton revisits the question of Herder as Faust and the early twentieth-century context in which the claim resonated. J. M. van der Laan explores the symbolic possibilities of the mysterious Eternal-Feminine. Frederick Burwick examines Coleridge’s critique of Goethe’sFaustand his own plans for a Faustian tale on Michael Scott. Andrew Bush demonstrates how Estanislao del Campo’s poem “Fausto” retells Gounod’s opera in the sociolect of Argentine gauchos. David G. John examines complete productions of Goethe’sFaustby Peter Stein and the Goetheanum. Jörg Esleben surveys contemporary Canadian interplay with Goethe’sFaust. Susanne Ledanff discusses the significance of Goethe’sFaustfor Werner Fritsch’s avant-garde “Theater of the Now.” Bruce J. MacLennan examinesFaustfrom the perspective of a researcher in several Faustian technologies: artificial intelligence, autonomous robotics, artificial life, and artificial morphogenesis.