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Faust has been called the fundamental icon of Western culture, and Goethe's inexhaustible poetic drama is the centrepiece of its tradition in literature, music and art. In recent years, this play has experienced something of a renaissance, with a surge of studies, theatre productions, press coverage and public discussions. Reflecting this renewed interest, leading Goethe scholars in this volume explore the play's striking modernity within its theatrical framework. The chapters present new aspects such as the virtuality of Faust, the music drama, the modernization of evil, Faust's blindness, the gay Mephistopheles, classic beauty and horror as phantasmagoria, and Goethe's anticipation of modern science, economics and ecology. The book contains an illustrated section on Faust in modern performance, with contributions by renowned directors, critics and dramaturges, and a major interview with Peter Stein, director of the uncut 'millennium production' of Expo 2000 pt. I. Modernity. Faust -- today / Albrecht Schöne ; Mephisto and the modernization of evil / Rolf-Peter Janz ; Mephisto is the devil -- or is he? / Peter Huber ; 'Schwankende Gestalten' : virtuality in Goethe's Faust / Ulrich Gaier ; Amnesia and anamnesis in Goethe's Faust / Wolf-Daniel Hartwich ; Magicians of modernity : Cagliostro and Saint-Simon in Goethe's Faust II / Hans-Jürgen Schings ; The blind Faust / Eberhard Lämmert ; From Faust to Harry Potter : discourses of the centaurs / Gisela Brude-Firnau ; Mistra and the Peloponnese in Goethe's Faust II / Wilhelm Blum ; Goethe and the grotesque : the 'classical Walpurgis night' / Angela C. Borchert ; Re-defining classicism : antiquity in Faust II under the sign of the Medusa / Ernst Osterkamp ; Diabolical entrapment : Mephisto, the angels, and the homoerotic in Goethe's Faust II / W. Daniel Wilson -- pt. II. Theatre. Goethe's Faust : theatre, meta-theatre, tragedy / Martin Swales ; Faust beyond tragedy : hidden comedy, covert opera / Dieter Borchmeyer ; Theatricality and experiment : identity in Faust / Jane Brown ; Rhetorical action : Faust between rhetoric, poetics, and music / Helmut Schanze ; Directing Faust : an interview / Peter Stein ; A contradictory whole : Peter Stein stages Faust / Dirk Pilz ; Re-thinking and staging Goethe's Faust at the State Theatre Stuttgart, 2005-6 / Jörg Bochow ; Strehler's Faust in performance / Laura Caretti
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