4. Goethe: Faust
Work
Faust, Parts 1 & 2, from Selected Works by Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe, Everyman’s Library, ISBN: 037541 0449
Program Description
During the past five hundred years the Faust legend has
captured the human imagination, finding expression in countless works of poetry, prose and music. One of its most magnificent recountings is, without a doubt, Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s
poetic masterwork, Faust. Composed over fifty years, the poem also represents the artistic masterpiece of the Romantic era.
One can spend years plumbing its many layers and still be left with much to ruminate about. The questions posed by the text
are legion: What are the differences between knowledge and
wisdom? What is the nature of beauty? What are the limits to
human understanding? How do we deal with temptation?
Goethe was committed to the poet’s enduring challenge of
wrestling with the mysteries of existence. Nowhere is this more evident than in Faust, a work the psychologist Carl Jung wrote is “not of this world and therefore can transport you; it is as much the future as the past and therefore the most living present.”
Discussion Leader
Béa Gonzalez is an author who has led various seminars at
Classical Pursuits as well as trips to Spain and Mexico. She
has been ruminating about Faust since she first encountered the work while in graduate school many years ago.
