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InterArtes, n. 7, 2025
Editors-in-Chief: Laura Brignoli, Silvia Zangrandi
Department of Humanities
Università IULM - Milan
Faust, a Myth of Modernity
Myth is a living entity that develops and grows by embracing interpretations, suggestions, and reinterpretations, in what Hans Blumenberg calls a true epigenesis. The multiple forms of narrative, typical of modernity, feed on myth and continuously regenerate it, rewriting it from various perspectives—religious, social, aesthetic, political, or pop—according to the times, up to the post-modern.
The myth of Faust is, par excellence, the modern myth that best epitomizes these features. It is a myth that embodies the conflicts of contemporary humanity, torn between ambition and guilt, faith in progress and self-destruction, awareness of one’s limits and the dream of overcoming every boundary, criticism of social order, the terror of confronting nature, and trust in and uneasiness towards the power of technology, such as with artificial intelligence.
Faust’s emblematic figure, which embodies human ambition, the desire for knowledge, and the price of power, has traversed the centuries, adapting to different historical, cultural, and literary contexts. It has experienced, in fact, three major transformative phases: the primitive phase of myth formation, the romantic phase of character exaltation, and the more complex twentieth-century and contemporary phase, which is more difficult to define.
Unlike other myths originating from orally transmitted popular legends, this myth has its origin in a real person who lived in the 16th century, the astrologer and necromancer Faust, a picturesque character whose actions straddled the line between magic and illusionistic charlatanism. Transformed by 16th-century German popular legends during the Protestant Reformation, it assumed the sulfurous aura that characterizes it, and then entered literature thanks to Marlowe’s work, which made it famous. The character reached its peak with Goethe’s Faust: the first part published in 1808, the second in 1832, transforming the myth into a universal epic that explores the tension between personal aspirations and moral limits, offering a complex and profound vision of humanity.
In the Romantic era, the first transformation of the primitive Faust occurs: from a marginal figure initially subjected to moralistic judgment, he becomes a hero with a tragic but inspiring fate. The authors of the 19th century pair him with a companion (Margaret or Helen) of equal importance, who is always by his side and sometimes even takes over as a sacrificial figure. From the 20th century onwards, the myth of Faust multiplies its rewritings and remediations.
The German area was the cradle of the myth: starting from the highly successful prose novel Historia von Doktor Johann Fausten by the printer Johann Spies in 1587, the story of Faust traverses the centuries to become the subject of a myth permeable to geographical locations and cultural traditions. Certainly from the 18th century, with the versions of Lessing, Klinger, and Goethe, the story, while assuming German characteristics, increasingly outlines itself as the modern myth of the West. Goethe, with his Faust, played a decisive role in the transformation of the myth; he redefined the traditional figure by granting it universal aspects and making it a symbol of modernity. The figure of Faust, who in Goethe navigates very distant geographical and temporal horizons, has allowed further metamorphoses from then on. In the 20th century, it intertwined with national themes and those of violence (Hochhuth), with German history (Thomas Mann and Brecht), to arrive at contemporary dramatic texts. Robert Menasse’s Doktor Hoechst (2009) contributed, as Francesco Rossi says, not to a reinterpretation of the Faustian myth, but rather to a Faustian interpretation of contemporaneity.
In France, Faustian echoes are found in Victor Hugo, Théophile Gautier, George Sand, Balzac, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, and Flaubert, but it is especially in the following century that the most accomplished examples appear, with the works of Jarry, Ghelderode, Mac Orlan, Valéry, and Giono, to name only the most famous authors, leaving out parodic works, which could also be the subject of investigation. Goethe’s Faust in Italy gave rise to two opposing reactions: on the one hand, those who reject it as an aesthetically and morally unacceptable work; on the other, those who read, rewrite, and reinvent it (see De Michelis 2017). Outstanding authors such as D’Annunzio, Papini, Pascoli, Landolfi, Celli, Pagliarani, Sanguineti, and Scabia have provided their reinterpretations. Various mythic elements (the pact, or the figure of Mephistopheles) have populated the works of Italian writers, as well as English literature which, in addition to the foundational work explicitly dedicated to Faust by Christopher Marlowe, presents numerous Promethean and Satanic figures traceable to that of the mythical German alchemist, primarily in the guise of the hero-villain, from Richardson’s Lovelace to the characters of the Gothic novels by Lewis, Maturin, and Radcliffe. Imbued with this tradition, the myth of Faust migrates and transforms into the Gothic romance of American literature, from Brockden Brown to Hawthorne who, in The Scarlet Letter, aptly defined as “a Puritan Faust,” transports the pact with the devil into a Puritan context, up to Melville and Twain. Hybris fully incarnates in Captain Ahab and even, according to Leslie Fiedler, in the protagonist of Huckleberry Finn, who prefers to go to hell rather than return the slave to his master. Still in Fiedler’s view, the Gothic thread traversed by the myth of Faust extends in American literature throughout the 20th century, from William Faulkner to Truman Capote.
The examples provided here certainly do not exhaust the proliferation of the Faustian myth, as its reworking spans other European and non-European literatures and opens up to reflection in the musical, artistic, and cinematic fields. The myth of Faust has inspired musicians (from Berlioz, Schumann, and Gounod to Boito and Busoni), directors (from Murnau to Brian De Palma to Sokurov), painters, and even sculptors. In these works, the figure of Faust engages with the central themes of modernity: science and technology, power and ethics, the quest for the absolute, and the compromises of reality.
But the myth of Faust is not confined to the European tradition. It has inspired writers, artists, and thinkers worldwide, often taking on new and unexpected connotations. From theatrical reinterpretations in Asia to postcolonial narratives in Africa, to postmodern revisions in digital media, Faust lends itself to a multiplicity of readings. It has been a symbol of rebellion, perdition, and redemption, becoming a lens through which to observe changes in society, philosophy, and art.
The literary journal INTERARTES invites the submission of articles for a special issue dedicated to the theme “Faust, Myth of Modernity,” with the aim of exploring the development of a key figure in Western culture that continues to engage with the present.
Proposals may investigate the mechanism of legend regeneration, both in literary reinterpretations and in media adaptations, hence exploring not only literature but also music, art, cinema, comics, and digital storytelling.
Articles and proposals may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Transformations, adaptations, and rewritings of the myth between the 20th century and contemporary times.
- Remediations (e.g., in music, cinema, or comics).
- Critical reinterpretations in the light of contemporary issues such as technology, ecology, and globalization.
- Parodies.
The themes that make up the myth are expressed with different nuances in the various epochs of the myth’s development:
- Witchcraft
- The dangers of knowledge
- The lust for power
- The desire for eternal youth and its counterpart, the fear of old age
- The allure of evil
- Individualism
- The transcendence of limits
Submission Guidelines:
The proposed contributions are expected to have a well-defined theoretical or analytical framework. They must be unpublished texts and written in Word, in compliance with the editorial guidelines available on the journal’s website. All submissions will be subject to double-blind review.
Accepted languages: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish.
Articles should be sent , accompanied by a brief bio-bibliographical note, by 30 July, 2025 to: interartes @iulm .it .
Essential Bibliography:
Ida DE MICHELIS (2017), Il viaggio di Faust in Italia. Percorsi di ricezione di un mito moderno, Viella, Roma.
Hans-Joachim KREUTZER (2003), Faust. Mythos und Musik, Beck, München.
Franco MORETTI (1995), Opere mondo. Saggio sulla forma epica dal Faust a Cent'anni di solitudine, Einaudi, Milano.
Paolo ORVIETO (2006), Il mito di Faust. L’uomo, Dio, il diavolo, Salerno editrice, Roma.
Francesco ROSSI (2023), Memoria storica, memoria letteraria e critica del presente nel Doktor Hoechst di Robert Menasse, Caietele Echinox , 44, pp. 308-321.
Ludger SCHERER (2001), “Faust” in der Tradition der Moderne: Studien zur Variation eines Themas bei Paul Valéry, Michel de Ghelderode, Michel Butor und Edoardo Sanguineti : mit einem Prolog zur Thematologie, Peter Lang , Frankfurt am Main .
John William SMEED (1975), Faust in Literature, Offord University Press , London-New York-Toronto .
Ian WATT (1998), Miti dell’individualismo moderno. Faust, don Chisciotte, don Giovanni, Robinson Crusoe, Donzelli, Roma.
Luca ZENOBI (2013), Faust. Il mito dalla tradizione orale al post-pop, Carocci , Roma.