David Wellbery: "Who is Faust?"

"Who is Faust?"
Keynote Address, 2009 University of Chicago Humanities Day
October 24, 2009

David Wellbery, LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson University Professor, Departments of Germanic Studies and Comparative Literature, Committee on Social Thought

What does this drama about a scholar- magician who makes a wager with the devil have to say to us today? Is the Faust myth still compelling for us in the twenty-first century? In this lecture, Professor David Wellbery discusses why philosophers from Hegel to Santayana and writers from Thomas Mann to Paul Valéry have considered Goethe's play to be such a profound statement about the human condition. He also examines features of the play that still confound scholars today.


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