Faust İzleğinin Tarihsel Değişimleri Bağlamında Bireyin Yazınsal Tarihi

Abstract

This study analyzes the Faust theme regarding its contribution to the literary history of the individual. The Odyssey of Homer is doubtlessly one of the main works in Antiquity that recorded this new phenomenon (the individual) for the first time. The next important record of re-born individualism is surely Hamlet in the age of the Renaissance. Since the Odyssey and Hamlet are classic examples of the literary history of the individual, these two works are briefly examined in the beginning of this study in order to furnish the reader with background information helpful in the analysis of the Faust theme. Last but not least, Goethe’s Faust can be considered a third monumental work in the history of the ‘book-keeping’ of individualism. This study describes and tries to analyze the main variations of the Faust theme from its beginnings until Goethe, and tries to answer the question, ‘How do these variations contribute to a literary history of the individual?’ It is interesting that a ‘real’ Faust actually lived in Germany. For this reason we will also include the information we have found about the ‘real’ man.