Transcontinental Myth

Book brings together essays on the Faust legend, as central myth dealing with modernity, conquest, colonization and development of the New World.

By Fábio de Castro

Agência FAPESP – Considered to be a central myth for modern times, the legend of Faust tells the tragedy of a man of science disillusioned with the limitations of the knowledge of his times. Wishing to overcome them, he makes a deal with the demon Mephistopheles, who breathes into him a passion for know-how and for progress, and gives him unlimited access to all the world’s knowledge and pleasures.

Based on the story of the German doctor and alchemist Johannes Georg Faust (1480-1540), the legend was immortalized in many literary manifestations beginning in the 16th century—the most influential of which being the 19th century work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).

The countless interpretations of the Faust myth and its relationship with the discovery of the New World as well as its conquest, colonization and development are the main theme of the  book Fausto e a América Latina [Faust and Latin America], published with FAPESP funding through its Research Support—Publications program.

The work, which brings together 30 essays by Brazilian and foreign researchers, was organized by Helmut Galle and Marcus Mazzari, professors, respectively, in the Modern Letters and  Literary Theory and Comparative Literature departments, at Universidade de São Paulo (USP)’s School of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH).

According to Galle, the book is the result of a symposium of the same name realized in 2008 under his coordination, with FAPESP funding under the Research Support—Organization of Scientific and/or Technological Meetings program. The event happened 200 years after the time that the first part of Goethe’s Faust was published.

“Many interpretations of the Faust myth have emerged in Germany in recent times that were still largely unknown in Brazil. On the other hand, there were many Latin-American researchers working on the topic of the relationship between Faust and Latin America. Aside from commemorating the bicentennial of Goethe’s book, the symposium sought to bring together and discuss all this contemporary research,” Galle told Agência FAPESP.

The dialogue fostered at the event and reflected on in the book is in essence interdisciplinary, bringing together different approaches including literary theory, compared literature, Germanic studies, Portuguese and Spanish literature, sociology, history and philosophy.

“The texts go beyond the interpretation of Faust as a literary text. They broaden the debate to include many other aspects of knowledge about Latin American culture, modern Europe and their many connections,” affirms Galle.

One of the many aspects dealt with is the figure of Faust as a symbol for the development of civilization. In the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, Faust, as a character created by Goethe, was considered the incarnation of modern man in his unlimited—and never satiated—desire for development and knowledge.

“All this was symbolized as something positive in Faust. Goethe’s drama was considered to be a symbol for progress and civilization, both by the positivists in the 19th century and by the Marxists in the 20th. Faust appears, then, as the myth of modernity, of man who liberates himself and dominates hostile nature,” he said.

But in Germany, mostly after the 1960s, other interpretations of the Faust myth began to appear. “The so-called ‘dialectic of enlightenment’ perspective began to appear, whose ambiguous elements questioned if Goethe himself considered progress, symbolized by Faust, as something positive for man,” he said.

The age of Goethe, according to Galle, saw many technological innovations and the advance of industrialization. The author included this reality in the second part of Faust, published in 1832. The first part, known as Faust Part One, had been published in 1808 after three decades of reflection on the topic.

“Aside from the dynamic of Europe as a continent that modernizes itself, we also have reflections of the colonization process of the New World. From the perspective of the dialectic of enlightenment, some authors identified verses from Faust that seem to deal with colonization, in spite of being a civilizing process, as a violent, pernicious initiative that generates more destruction than benefits for human beings,” he said.

Drama of knowledge

The Faustian myth, meanwhile, has many other interpretations and repercussions. “We found reflections of Faust in Brazilian cordel literature [stories in verse sold at popular markets] and in Argentinian popular literature, for example, as well as in literary manifestations on other parts of the continent. In the book, we have many essays on these repercussions,” affirmed Galle.

The debate surrounding the historic figure of Faust is included in the collection of essays. According to the USP professor, the real person, who lived at the time of the discoveries, appears in his first literary manifestation—the Faustbuch—in the 16th century, on a world voyage with the help of Mephistopheles.

“Even though the work was written more than 80 years after the discovery of America, Faust’s travels are limited to Europe, Asia and Africa. Some interpreters believe that the author of Faustbuch wanted to show in a pedagogical manner, that only false knowledge is produced by the devil. This would be obvious to readers, since on a trip around the world, America should appear,” he said.

A few years after Faustbuch, in 1593, the book called Wagnerbuch appeared, in which Faust’s assistant, known as Wagner, makes a voyage to America. Galle is the author of an essay on Wagnerbuch. “That book is based on extracts from the travel journal of Bensoni, an Italian that traveled to Venezuela, Peru and Central America and harshly criticized Spain’s actions. The work became one of the sources of the so-called ‘Black Legend’, a 16th century political stance that contested the ‘divine mission’ of the Spanish conquests, calling them ‘work of the devil’,” he explained.

According to Galle, the Faust legend spread throughout Europe through many popular versions and, in 1604, its first refined cultural manifestation appeared in England with Christopher Marlowe’s theater piece, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. “Until the 18th century, the Faust myth had many popular adaptations in English Elizabethan theater and new German versions in book form,” he said.

In the second half of the 18th century, however, many well-known authors perceive the paradigm of modern humankind in the Faustian material, according to the professor, especially Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781).
“From that point on, Faust becomes the drama of knowledge as well. It is in this context that Goethe’s first part of Faust appears, published in 1808. He had been working on the text for a long time before this. He worked on the second part until 1832,” he said.

After the depth of Goethe’s work, few poets ventured to deal with the Faust myth. But according to Galle, the opera became the recurring forum for the theme. From the beginning of the 20th century on, many modernists took up the character again, including Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), Paul Valéry (1871-1945), Gertrud Stein (1874-1946) and Thomas Mann (1875-1955).

Fausto e a América Latina
Organizers: Helmut Galle and Marcus Mazzari
Release: 2010 - Editora Humanitas
Pages: 560