Comp Lit 320B	Jane K. Brown
Autumn 2010	jkbrown@u.washington.edu
T,Th 9:30-11:20	Office Hours: T, Th 11:30-1:00
Web Site: http://courses.washington.edu/litcrit/	Denny 334

Faust and the Devil in Literature and Music

Goals: This course is intended to develop your ability to interpret by close reading of literary and filmic texts and to refine your writing skills. It investigates how pacts with the devil appear in both comic and tragic versions in our culture and on the special connections of this tradition with music. We will explore how the legend of the pact with the devil came to represent Goethe's evaluation of the entire Western cultural tradition and of the dangers inherent in our advancing scientific knowledge.

Policies: Always bring your book to class. You will be graded on your papers and oral participation (75%) and your take-home final (25%). Attentive response to the comments on the paragraphs should result in better papers. Assignments are due typed double-spaced at the beginning of class on the day assigned; exceptions can be made only with the advance permission of the instructor.

Required Texts: (available at the University Bookstore)

Marlowe, Christopher. Dr. Faustus. Dover.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Goethe's Faust. Parts I and II. Oxford.

Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita. Vintage.

Recommended:

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Goethe's Faust. Norton Critical Edition, second edition.

Reserve: (Odegaard Media Center)

Gounod, Charles. Faust (sound recording)

Russell, Ken. Gounod's Faust (video recording)

Murnau, F.W. Faust (video recording)

Svankmajer, Jan. Faust (video recording)

Assignments:

1. Four one-paragraph assignments due Oct 7, Oct 19, Nov 2 and Nov 23. The point is to practice writing well-structured paragraphs that move from a clear statement of topic through analysis of evidence to an interesting conclusion. The paragraph should not exceed one page (typed, double-spaced). Be sure to put your name on it.

2. Take-home final due Dec 15

9/30 Introduction { Faust Legends, Renaissance Attitudes toward Faust}

10/5 Marlowe: Dr. Faustus, The English Faustbook

10/7 Goethe: Faust I, 3-37 and {Book of Job, ch 1-3, 28, 35-42; Brown: biography of Goethe,Book of John, ch 1; [Fludd: Macrocosm] Assignment: Compare and contrast the three figures in the "Prelude on the Stage"

10/12 Goethe: Faust I, 37-72, {Milton: Paradise Lost , Bk. 9}

10/14 Goethe: Faust I, 72-121, [Giorgione: Venus], {Shakespeare:Hamlet, esp. IV, 5 and 6}

10/19 Goethe: Faust I, 122-148 {Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, esp. Act 5; Gay: The Beggar's Opera}; [Blocksberg], Assignment: Play-within-play in "Walpurgisnight"

10/21 Murnau: Faust

10/26 Russell: Gounods Faust, {libretto},

10/28 Goethe: Faust II, 3-49 {The Tempest}

11/2 Goethe: Faust II, 49-86, [Correggio: Leda and the Swan, Caracci: ceiling], Assignment: Faust's descent to the Mothers

11/4 Goethe: Faust II, 93-123 {Aristophanes: The Frogs}, [Raphael: The Triumph of Galatea]

11/9 Goethe: Faust II, 124-158 {Euripides: Helen}

11/11 holiday

11/16 Goethe: Faust II, 158-174

11/18 Goethe: Faust II, 175-206, Assignment: Baucis and Philemon

11/23 Goethe: Faust II, 207-239, {Sophocles:Oedipus}

11/25 holiday

11/30 Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, ch. 1-12 {useful background, timeline, Pontius Pilate}

12/2 " ", ch. 13-21

12/7 " ", ch. 22-Epilogue,

12/9 Svankmajer:Faust