The Faustian Century

New essays revealing the enduring significance of the story made famous in the 1587Faustbuch and providing insights into the forces that gave the sixteenth century its distinct character.

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 1587Historia 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 theFaustbuch and its theme with a symbolic significance still of exceptional relevance today.
The new essays in this volume complement one another, providing insights into the tensions and forces that gave the century its distinctcharacter. Several essays seek Faust's prototypes. Others elaborate the symbolic function of his figure and discern the resonance of his tale in conflicting allegiances. This volume focuses on the intersection of historical accounts and literary imaginings, on shared aspects of the work and its times, on concerns with obedience and transgression, obsessions with the devil and curiosity about magic, and quandaries created by shifting religious and worldlyauthorities.

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.

Introduction: Faust Scholarship and the Project at Hand - James M. van der Laan
The German Faustian Century - Andrew Weeks
Faustus of the Sixteenth Century: His Life, Legend, and Myth - Frank Baron
Cornelius Agrippa's Double Presence in the Faustian Century - Michael Keefer
Converging Magical Legends: Faustus, Paracelsus, and Trithemius - Urs Leo Gantenbein
Faust from Cipher to Sign and Pious to Profane - James M. van der Laan
The Aesthetics of the 1587 SpiesHistoria von D. Johann Fausten - Marguerite de Huszar Allen
The Lutheran Faust: Repentance in the Augsburg Confession and the GermanFaustbuch - Kresten Thue Andersen
Marriage in theHistoria von D. Johann Fausten (1587) - Paul Ernst Meyer
Antiauthoritarianism and the Problem of Knowledge in theFaustbuch - Andrew Weeks
Exploring the "Three-Fold World": Faust as Alchemist, Astrologer, and Magician - Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly
The Devil in the Early Modern World and in Sixteenth-Century German Devil Literature - Albrecht Classen
Encounters with "Schwarz-Hanz": Jacob Böhme and the Literature of the Devil in the Sixteenth Century - Günther Bonheim
D. Johann Faust and the Cannibals: Geographic Horizons in the Sixteenth Century - Karl S. Guthke
A Sixteenth-Century Chronology of Significant References to Faust with Parallel World Events
Select Bibliography
Notes on the Contributors
Index