The Faustian Century: German Literature and Culture in the Age of Luther and FaustusJames M. Van der Laan, Andrew Weeks New essays revealing the enduring significance of the story made famous in the 1587 Faustbuch and providing insights into the forces that gave the sixteenth century its distinct character. The Reformation and Renaissance, though segregated into distinct disciplines today, interacted and clashed intimately in Faust, the great figure that attained European prominence in the anonymous 1587 Historia von D. Johann Fausten. The original Faust behind Goethe's great drama embodies a remote culture. In his century, Faust evolved from an obscure cipher to a universal symbol. The age explored here as "the Faustian century" invested the Faustbuch and its theme with a symbolic significance still of exceptional relevance today. Contributors: Marguerite de Huszar Allen, Kresten Thue Andersen, Frank Baron, Günther Bonheim, Albrecht Classen, Urs Leo Gantenbein, Karl S. Guthke, Michael Keefer, Paul Ernst Meyer, J. M. van der Laan, Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly, Andrew Weeks. J. M. van der Laan is Professor of German and Andrew Weeks is Professor of German and Comparative Literature, both at Illinois State University. |
Contents
Illustrations | 11 |
The German Faustian Century | 17 |
Faustus of the Sixteenth Century His Life Legend and Myth | 43 |
Cornelius Agrippas Double Presence in the Faustian Century | 67 |
Converging Magical Legends Faustus Paracelsus | 93 |
Faust from Cipher to Sign and Pious to Profane | 125 |
The Aesthetics of the 1587 Spies Historid von D 0hdnn | 149 |
The Lutheran Faust Repentance in the Augsburg Confession | 177 |
Sigil | 240 |
Exploring the ThreeFold World Faust as Alchemist | 241 |
Mephistophiles and red magic cape | 256 |
The Devil in the Early Modern World and in SixteenthCentury | 257 |
Beasts rampant and mandrake root | 284 |
Encounters with SchWarZHans Iacob Bohme | 285 |
Page of text from Rosshirt manuscript | 304 |
the Sixteenth Century | 305 |
Marriage in the Historid von D 0hdnn Fdnsten 1 58 7 | 197 |
Rooster | 214 |
Antiauthoritarianism and the Problem of Knowledge in | 215 |
361 | |
Notes on the Contributors | 381 |