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Expanding Eyes: A Visionary Education Michael Dolzani
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This podcast is aimed at a non-specialist audience interested in acquiring what Northrop Frye called, in the title of one of his books, an educated imagination. Its materials are drawn from the many courses in literature and mythology that I taught, combined with material from my book The Productions of Time, for which I hope the podcast may provide an accessible introduction, with concrete examples. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michael-dolzani/support
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Episode 166: Goethe’s Faust, Part 1. The So-Called “Gretchen Tragedy.” Faust Seduces Gretchen, Whose Friend Martha Encourages Her.
The “Gretchen tragedy” is not a tragedy at all but Aristotelian or Shakespearean standards, not to fall of a great and elite figure but of a common and unknown one. Perhaps more accurately called “melodrama,” an important genre in the 19th century. Faust seduces Gretchen, who falls in love with him. Her friend Martha, a much more down-to-earth figure.
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Goethe’s Faust, Part 1. The Witch’s Kitchen. A Youth Potion for Faust. The Ideal Feminine in a Mirror. Faust Sees Margarete. He and Mephistopheles Invade Her Bedroom and Leave Jewels.
The Witch’s Kitchen episode is satiric—the Witch’s servants are marmosets, and the spell by which she makes a youth potion for Faust parodies the symbolism of alchemy. Faust sees an ideal Feminine image in a mirror. On the street, he sees and is infatuated with Margarete, or Gretchen. He and Mephistopheles snoop in her bedroom and leave jewels.
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p. 164: Goethe’s Faust. Part 1. Mephistopheles in Faust’s Lab. The Famous Pact—with a Twist.
The black poodle turns into Mephistopheles, who escapes by having a rat gnaw a hole in the pentagram that traps him. But he returns. The famous pact—with the twist that what Faust demands is unsatisfied desire. The minute in which he is fulfilled enough to wish the moment to linger—then he loses. Mephistopheles disguised as Faust demoralizes an idealistic student. In Auerbach’s tavern, drinking, drinking songs, and hijinks.
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Episode 163: Goethe’s Faust, Part 1. Faust and Wagner Amidst Celebration of Easter and Spring. A Black Poodle Follows Faust Back to His Study, and Turns into Mephistopheles.
Distracted from suicide, Faust walks with Wagner among the townspeople celebrating Easter and spring. Faust’s famous speech about having “two souls,” one aspiring upward, the other holding fast to earth. A black poodle follows him back to his study, where, in another famous speech, he changes “In the beginning was the Word” to “In the beginning was the act.” The black poodle turns into Mephistopheles.
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Episode 162: Goethe’s Faust, Part 1, Opening Scene, “Night.” Seeking Knowledge, Faust Conjures the Macrocosm and the Earth Spirit. The Latter Dismisses Him. He Is Saved from Drinking Poison.
Faust has mastered all conventional knowledge and finds it worthless, so he turns to “forbidden knowledge,” a book of magic. He sees a vision of celestial harmony, the Macrocosm, but it is transcendent and beyond him. So he conjures the Earth Spirit, but is terrified. The Earth Spirit dismisses him with contempt. Faust is about to drink poison in despair, but is distracted by Easter celebrations outside his study.
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Episode 161: Goethe’s Faust. The Importance of the Three Preliminary Poems. The “Prologue in Heaven”: A Revisionist Replay of the Book of Job.
Three preliminary poems deepen the meaning and experience of the poem to follow. The third, the “Prologue in Heaven,” is a revisionist version of the Book of Job. God and Mephistopheles make a bet—but about Faust, not Job. God says that humanity is lazy and needs to be pricked out of its passivity by the likes of such a “rogue” or Trickster.
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