FAUST İZLEĞİNİN TARİHSEL DEĞİŞİMLERİ BAĞLAMINDA BİREYİN YAZINSAL TARİHİ

Abstract

This study analyzes the Faust theme regarding its contribution to the literary history of theindividual. The Odyssey of Homer is doubtlessly one of the main works in Antiquity that recordedthis new phenomenon (the individual) for the first time. The next important record of re-bornindividualism is surely Hamlet in the age of the Renaissance. Since the Odyssey and Hamlet areclassic examples of the literary history of the individual, these two works are briefly examined inthe beginning of this study in order to furnish the reader with background information helpful inthe analysis of the Faust theme. Last but not least, Goethe’s Faust can be considered a thirdmonumental work in the history of the ‘book-keeping’ of individualism. This study describes andtries to analyze the main variations of the Faust theme from its beginnings until Goethe, and triesto 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 includethe information we have found about the ‘real’ man