Hyperrealities and Simulacra in Goethe’s Faust

  • Francesco Rossi Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica
Keywords: Virtuality, Theory of simulacra, Faust, Goethe's Faust, Thematic analysis

Abstract

No other text calls for ongoing interpretations like Goethe’s Faust. Reconsidered in relation to the progressive virtualisation of experience typical of our age, this two-part tragedy is interesting for us, its twenty-first-century audience, because of the crossing of boundaries between the real and the virtual. This encourages an interpretation of the text along the lines of Baudrillard's philosophy of the simulacrum, supplemented by further theoretical inputs. Virtuality and simulacrum are thus to be considered as parts of the same thematic field running through the work. Closely linked to this field is the mediatisation of experience, through which the subject becomes a hybrid, disembodied, decontextualised and non-situated presence floating in a sequence of hyperrealities. My interpretative hypothesis focuses on this aspect, which is closely linked to the question of the simulacrum and its relationship to the posthuman. It focuses particularly on the figures of Homunculus and Helena, in which the phantasmagoric side of Faust becomes evident. While in the former the simulation of the human in vitro is associated with a reduced form of life that privileges the mind over the body, with the latter the question shifts to the relationship between the main male character and the eternal feminine. These two characters invite us to reflect on disembodied experience, as well as on the poetic and aesthetic values of the simulacrum in this text and beyond it.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Agamben, Giorgio, Stanze. La parola e il fantasma nella cultura occidentale, Torino, Einaudi, 1993 (11977).

Albrecht, Andrea - Willand, Marcus, “Homunculus”, Faust Handbuch, Konstellationen – Diskurse – Medien, Hg. Carsten Rohde - Thorsten Valk - Mathias Mayer, Stuttgart, Metzler, 2018: 535-543.

Andriopoulos, Stefan, Ghostly Apparitions. German Idealism, the Gothic Novel, and Optical Media, New York, Zone Books, 2013.

Bohnenkamp, Anne, “…das Hauptgeschäft nicht außer Augen lassend”. Die Paralipomena zu Goethes ‘Faust’, Frankfurt a. M., Insel, 1994.

Baudrillard, Jean, Simulacra and Simulation, Eng. tr. Sheila Faria Glaser, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1994 (Simulacres et simulation, Galilée, Paris 1981)

Id., Symbolic Exchange and Death, Eng. tr. Iain Hamilton Grant, London, Sage Publications, 1993 (L’échange symbolique et la mort, Gallimard, Paris 1976).

Carducci, Stefano - Fambrini, Alessandro, Philip K. Dick. Tossine metaboliche e complessi illusori prevalenti, Milano, Mimesis, 2021.

Dath, Dietmar, Niegeschichte. Science Fiction als Kunst- und Denkmaschine, Berlin, Matthes & Seitz, 2019.

Drux, Rudolf, “Homunculus oder Leben aus der Retorte. Zur Kulturgeschichte eines literarischen Motivs seit Goethe”, Tales from the Laboratory. Or, Homunculus Revisited, Hg. Rüdiger Görner, München, iudicium, 2005: 91-104.

Fusillo, Massimo, “La seduzione del doppio”, in Euripide, Elena, Ed. Massimo Fusillo, Milano, Rizzoli, 1997: 5-27.

Id., L’altro e lo stesso. Teoria e storia del doppio, nuova edizione, Modena, Mucchi, 2012.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Faust, Parts I & II, Eng. tr. A. S. Kline, Poetry In Translation (www.poetryintranslation.com).

Gray, Ronald D., Goethe the Alchemist. A Study of Alchemical Symbolism in Goethe’s Literary and Scientific Works, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1952.

Grespi, Barbara - Violi, Alessandra (eds.), Apparizioni, scritti sulla fantasmagoria, Canterano, Aracne, 2019.

Hayles, N. Katherine, How We Became Posthuman. Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Höfler, Otto, Homunculus – eine Satire auf A. W. Schlegel. Goethe und die Romantik, Wien - Köln - Graz, Böhlau, 1972.

Jones, Gwyneth, Deconstructing the Starships, Science, Fiction and Reality, Liverpool University Press 1999.

Kluge, Alexander, Faust als Nationalsozialist, in Chronik der Gefühle, vol. 1, Basisgeschichten, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp, 2003: 486-496.

Van der Laan, James M., Seeking Meaning for Goethe’s Faust, London - New York, Continuum, 2007.

LaGrandeur, Kevin, Androids and Intelligent Networks in Early Modern Literature and Culture: Artificial Slaves, London New York, Routledge 2017 (12013).

Lohmeyer, Dorothea, Faust und die Welt. Der zweite Teil der Dichtung. Eine Anleitung zum Lesen des Textes, München, Beck, 1975.

Marola, Francesco, “L’archetipo goethiano e l’interferenza di Don Giovanni nel Faust 67 di Tommaso Landolfi”, Contemporanea, 17 (2019): 11-22.

Menasse, Robert, Doktor Hoechst. Ein Faust-Spiel, Zsolnay, Wien 2013.

Id., “Mein Leben mit Doktor Faust”, Akzente, 62/1 (2015): 70-81.

Micali, Simona, Towards a Posthuman Imagination in Literature and Media. Monsters, Mutants, Aliens, Artificial Beings, Oxford, Peter Lang, 2019.

Milner, Max, La fantasmagoria, saggio sull’ottica fantastica, transl. Giuseppe Guglielmi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1989.

Mommsen, Katharina, Natur- und Fabelreich in Faust II, de Gruyter, Berlin 1968.

Orlando, Francesco, Il soprannaturale letterario. Storia, logica e forme, Eds. Stefano Brugnolo - Luciano Pellegrini - Valentina Sturli, Torino, Einaudi, 2017.

Ravenhill, Mark, Faust: Faust Is Dead, London, Methuen Drama, 1997.

Robert, Jörg, Phantasmagorie. ‘Faust’ als Medientheater, Wallstein, Göttingen, currently being published.

Schöne, Albrecht (ed.), Goethe Faust. Texte, Berlin, Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 2019a (11994).

Id., Goethe Faust. Kommentare, Berlin, Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 2019b (11994).

Serra, Valentina, Robert Menasse. Intellettuale, scrittore e critico europeo, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2018.

Spies, Johann, Storia del dottor Faust, ben noto mago e negromante, edited by Maria Enrica D’Agostini, Milano, Garzanti, 1980.

Stoichita, Victor I., The Pygmalion Effect. From Ovid to Hitchcock, Eng. tr. Alison Anderson, Chicago & London, The University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Weber, Christian P., “In Defense of Humanism: Envisioning a Posthuman Future and Its Critique in Goethe’s Faust”, Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism Mind Matter and the Life Sciences after Kant, Eds. Edgar Landgraf - Gabriel Trop - Leif Weatherby, London, Bloomsbury, 2019: 243-268.

Zagari, Luciano, “Il ‘Faust’. Le due parti della tragedia alla luce del ‘Chorus Mysticus’ Finale”, Storia, filosofia e letteratura. Studi in onore di Gennaro Sasso, Eds. Marta Herling - Mario Reale, Napoli, Bibliopolis, 1999: 437-482.

Zenobi, Luca, Faust. Il mito dalla tradizione orale al post-pop, Roma, Carocci, 2013.

Published
2022-11-24
How to Cite
Rossi, F. (2022). Hyperrealities and Simulacra in Goethe’s <em>Faust</em&gt;. Between, 12(24), 441-459. https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/5141