Novels and the Sociology of the Contemporary by Arpad Szakolczai

Author:Arpad Szakolczai [Szakolczai, Arpad]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781317223009
Google: 8UT7CwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-04-14T05:08:28+00:00

The Dynamics of Goethe’s Project

Goethe eventually took up the task of writing Faust, but was not quick to make it public—learning his lessons about the ‘public sphere’, due to its inherent trickiness. His engagement with the project is usually divided into four phases (see Brown 2002). He started to toy with the idea in 1773, in that extraordinary summer of creative fermentation (Boyle 1992: 161–2), and by his 1775 move to Weimar, he had a draft of several scenes, mostly written during the months of waiting. He worked on it continuously in Weimar, and this eventually resulted in the famous Ur-Faust, discovered in 1887. Significantly, this became the favourite of critics, due to its supposed coherence (Brown 2002: 89)—something that would be repeated with Wilhelm Meister (for a recent such assertion, see Swales 2002: 140) and that would much contribute to Goethe’s view that hardly anybody understood him. The central issue is that both early works clearly bore the mark of Lessing’s style—the model here was Emilia Galotti, and the play had the character of a ‘bourgeois tragedy’ (Brown 2002: 92).

The second phase started with the Italian journey (1786–8). Goethe took the play with him, adding a few crucial scenes, in particular the ‘forest and cavern’ and the ‘witches’ kitchen’, which radically altered the balance of the play (Brown 2002: 93). This version was published in 1790 as part of his collected works but was indicated as ‘A Fragment’. Goethe returned to work in 1797, having completed Lehrjahre, guided by extensive readings of the Old Testament and Aeschylus and upon concluding the epic poem Hermann and Dorothea. It was finished about ten years later, in 1806, and published in 1808. Already during the time of completing Faust I he composed scenes for a follow-up, which he only started to complete on 25 February 1825. The play would be completed in July 1831, but—following his explicit wishes—it would only be published posthumously.

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