Faust 20e: échos de l’ego. Le démon de Faust ou l’homme et ses démons ed. by Pascal Noir (review)
2004; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 99; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/mlr.2004.a826655
ISSN2222-4319
Autores ResumoREVIEWS Faust 2oe: echos de Vego. Le demon de Faust ou Vhommeet ses demons. Ed. by Pascal Noir. Paris: Minard. 2001. ?24.39. 290 pp. ISBN 2-256-91032-6. Pascal Noir's foreword to the present collection records renewed interest in the Faust legend in European culture in recent years. Although stagings of the 'unstageable' Goethe plays contribute to Faust's eternal youth, these essays also reveal that this five-hundred-year-old has kept up to date with recent cultural and technological de? velopments: while Faust is amusing himself by spotting the erudite allusions in his pile of comic books, Mephisto will be hacking into Faust websites to bombard visitors with spam forall kinds of temptation, and downloadingpirated copies of Faust films. Noir's opening essay usefully maps out the development of the myth, from what we half-know of the historical figure, through traces of the oral and popular traditions, to the great Faust texts and others which share its themes: Frankenstein, L 'Eve future, The Portrait of Dorian Gray. According to Noir, the secret of eternal youth is an ob? vious one: Faust deals with eternal human concerns such as sexual desire, knowledge, and the struggle between good and evil. The nitpicker might suggest that eternal themes are a shaky basis on which to establish the influence of a particular legend on a text. Michel Peifer looks at ideological and propagandistic reworkings ofthe myth in twentieth-century literary texts, concluding that the theological debate over good and evil has been displaced by a secular preoccupation with psychological torment. AnneMarie Kosnicki studies filmic representations from Murnau to Wenders and Fellini, noting that they appear preoccupied with parallels with the Second World War and with their own pacts with the demons of filmfinancing. Operatic Fausts, according to Virginie Slusarski, tend to be overshadowed by their Gretchens. This apparently intensifies the philosophical and metaphysical aspects ofthe myth. Faust parodies from Marlowe onwards are the preoccupation of Henri Rossi, who dissects their humour, finding the despair underlying some and reactions against the Goethean aesthetic in others. Goethe nevertheless remains the benchmark, so Sieghild Bogumil reports on recent spectacular stagings of Faust I and Faust II, with particular reference to the manner in which the difnculty of the material leads to new interpretations and inno? vative stagecraft. Contributions by Veronique Zaercher and by Noir and Peifer lead us back to popular culture, in the updated forms of science fictionand the comic book, and with the updated preoccupations of the contraceptive pill and chemical weapons. A concise bibliography and a chronology of Fausts complete a volume which suggests that Faust scholarship, like the myth itself,has life left in it. University of Leeds Paul Rowe Le Vampire dans la litterature du XXe siecle. By Jean Marigny. Paris: Champion. 2003. 379 pp. ?60. ISBN 2-7453-0818-1. The vampire is a stereotype. Why has this horror myth prospered? Most of us, despite irrational fears of fluttering bats, do not expect to be relieved of our blood, except by nurses; and donors gladly sacrifice theirs. Lovers may want to eat each other, but in the nicest possible way. So, why serial bloodsuckers? The term dates from only 1732, though legends of haemophiliac creatures surface worldwide, across the ages. As Jean Marigny points out, the Enlightenment bred them, then sought to censor them, in the name of Reason. German and English Romantics exploited the trend. Their vampires were frequently female (vamp is always feminine, since only women are fatal). Byron's secretary, Polidori, on his master's tip-off, created the first sig? nificant prose version in 1819, though in male form. Nodier, Dumas pere, Gautier, ...
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