FLL 225: Faust and the Problem of Knowledge

Office: Cleveland 210
Phone: 364-3305; Home phone: 364-8484
Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday 2:00-4:30 and by appointment

Texts:
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, ed. Sylvan Barnet. N.Y.: Signet, 1969. (Includes excerpts from the 1592 English chapbook The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus.)

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Faust, tr. and ed. Walter Kaufmann. N.Y.: Doubleday, 1951. (Part One, with excerpts from Part Two.)

Paul Valéry, My Faust in Collected Works, Vol. 3: Plays, tr. David Paul and Robert Fitzgerald. N.Y.: Pantheon, 1960. (Copies to be distributed.)

Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus. The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkühn as Told by a Friend, tr. H. T. Lowe-Porter. N.Y.: Vintage, 1971.

Photocopies of historical documents and other materials.

Syllabus:

Jan. 31    Introduction; FILM: Paracelsus
Feb. 2     Documents; Damnable Life

Feb. 7     Damnable Life
Feb. 9     Marlowe: Tragical History

Feb. 14   Marlowe
Feb. 16   Lessing, Faust Fragments; Goethe, Faust, Part One

Feb. 21    Goethe
Feb. 23    Goethe

Feb. 28    Goethe
Mar.  2    Goethe

Mar. 7     Goethe, Faust, Part Two, excerpts
Mar. 9     Faust in music

Mar. 12    FILM: F. W. Murnau's Faust
Mar. 14    Film and the visual arts
Mar. 16    Valéry, My Faust

Spring Break

Mar. 28    Valéry
Mar. 30    Valéry

Apr. 4     Mann, Doctor Faustus
Apr. 6     Mann

Apr. 11    Mann
Apr. 13    Mann

Apr. 18    Mann
Apr. 20    Mann; FILM: Arnold Schönberg

Apr. 25    Mann
Apr. 27    Mann

May 2     Mann
May 4     Mann; Four Centuries of Faust
 

Writing:
Three papers of c. 3-4 typed pages (c. 750-1,000 words). First paper due by Feb. 20 (Chapbook, Marlowe); second paper due by March 13 (Goethe, music); third paper due by April 10 (film, visual arts, Valéry). Reports on other Faust texts. Take-home final examination (Mann, overview).

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