Framing Faust: Twentieth-Century Cultural Struggles

Preface

Preface xiii S ome years ago, the idea that “master narratives” were harmful to authentic cultural understanding gained currency in academic and intellectual circles. Even the word humanism became suspect, and “humanist values” were said to cloak agendas of cultural domination , whether based on geopolitics or gender. Much of this questioning of Western traditions has been valuable, indeed essential, to our developing awareness of the claims of diversity and globalism in its positive aspects. At the same time, I wonder whether that interrogation might be located within Western tradition itself and even within its so-called master narratives. In line with this thought, I have tried to break the rebel Faust out of the constraining way in which he is held up to promote traditional “humanist values .” This circumstance limits my work at the same time that it focuses and enriches it. Limits it, because my particular emphasis does not encompass the entire landscape of the Faustian—indeed, this would be a task for many volumes and for an entirely different approach than the one I have adopted. Enriches it, because in focusing on the ways in which the Faustian rebel has surfaced in some of the most important cultural crises of the twentieth century , I have been able to explore the Faustian myth in its various political, aesthetic, and social contexts. My approach is interdisciplinary and comparative. The Faustian myth is one of the great gifts of Germanic culture to the world and has fueled the creative imagination of major artists, writers, filmmakers, and musicians. But it does not belong to one nation or single academic discipline. I hope that my book will inspire more study, especially of some of the neglected works that I take up in these pages. Despite the ubiquity of the Faust myth, the literary works that have wrestled with it most creatively are often not available in English or are out of print, while some of the films are only available in archives. This is true of the works by Hélène Cixous, Frank Wedekind, Léon Blum, Volker Braun, Else Lasker-Schüler, Hanns Eisler, and Michel Butor, to name just a few. I have had to summarize the outlines of their work and to provide my own xiv preface translations of important passages so as not to leave the reader too much in the dark. One of my hopes is that these plays, essays, and novels will be resuscitated and will find new audiences. As for the films: John Farrow’s Alias Nick Beal can be viewed only in the UCLA film archive, while Stan Brakhage’s four Faust films are rarely screened, even in archival retrospectives of Brakhage’s work (they are, however, available from Canyon Cinema). Early silent films by Méliès, L’Herbier, and Edison have to be viewed at archives in the United States and Europe and are not currently available to the public. In the process of preparing this work, I have received the help of many wonderful people. Foremost among these is Madeline Matz, research specialist in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress. Without her patient assistance and invaluable research skills, this book would never have been completed. Linda Dittmar and Jost Hermand provided invaluable criticism and encouragement in the early stages of my writing, while Wolfgang Fritz Haug and Frigga Haug created a friendly and supportive community thorough InkriT (the Institute for Critical Theory) in Berlin. The staff at several film archives have also been of great assistance: Paolo Cherchi Usai, curator for film at the George Eastman House, Mary Corliss of the Museum of Modern Arts Stills Archive, as well as the staff of the British Film Institute, the UCLA Film Archive, and the Services des Archives du Film du Centre National de Cinématographie at Bois d’Arcy outside of Paris. Doris Schartel helped me obtain permissions for several film stills, and Walter Ross-O’Connor, circulation supervisor at the Widener Library of Harvard University, gave me his unstinting help through many years of research. My work was initially supported by a faculty research grant and sabbatical leave at Northeastern University. Portions of chapters were presented at conferences organized by the American Comparative Literature Association in 2000 and 2002 and by the International Conference on Avant-Garde Cinema at the University of Edinburgh in 2004. I wish to thank the journal Socialism and Democracy for permission to reprint my 1999 essay, “Faust and Utopia...