Overview

The Faustus myth, before being identified as a myth, was the folktale of a man named Faustus who lived in Germany. Underneath the popularity of this myth lies the basic human instinct to trespass the limits of traditional knowledge in pursuit of self-definition, authentic knowledge and power. This search and transgression also involve the desire to exercise the right of making free authentic choices. Faustus represents universal issues that are relevant for all human beings, which explains the reason why he has acquired mythic stature. Indeed, a most persistent myth has evolved, the appeal of which has led one writer after the other to reshape it. After his story became popular, he reappeared, even in contemporary culture, in different art forms such as literature, both high-brow and popular, including comics, the ballet and the opera. The real historical Faustus came onto the scene as a scholar and persistently reappeared in literature assuming different identities which, however, shared basically the same qualities. This book demonstrates and offers different perspectives to versions of the Faustus myth in literature: Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Goethe's Faust and John Fowles' The Magus. The Faustus Myth is a cycle which starts and ends in tragic circumstances in Christopher Marlowe's Renaissance Faustus, in salvation in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, and in meaninglessness, ambiguous collapses in John Fowles' existentialist Nicholas Urfe.

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9781443882842

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Şeyda Sivrioğlu is Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature at Pamukkale University, Turkey, where she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the survey of English literature, Shakespeare, postmodern drama and fantasy fiction. Her publications include articles on the Victorian and postmodern English novel, Shakespeare and fantasy fiction. Sivrioğlu is the author of the Fairies or Scaries, From Tradition to Transformation: Challenging Grand Narratives of Fairy Tales.

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