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.Even though the basic structure of Faust establishes a world withoutsacrifice, the result is not a reduction of violence, but a tragedy builtaround the conflict between violence and escapist diversion that wehave already seen in Goebbels s call for a theatre that could provideboth ideologically serious drama and a diversion from everyday reali-ties.Because Goethe s tragedy provides a sense of the inescapability ofviolence while at the same time offering ironic and satirical entertain-ment, it was well suited for the role of both diverting from but alsopreparing the German people for the kinds of violence that the Naziscarried out during their rule.Consequently, the Nazi aesthetic pleasurein Faust may have stemmed from its ability to establish a culture thatwould at least tolerate racist and anti-Semitic principles if they wereperceived as necessary for the greater good and in spite of the violencethey implied.The rejection of sacrifice in Faust functions not to quellviolence, but to remove the limitations on the individual sovereign willthat a system of repression requires. The Structure of Aesthetic Pleasure 93Critical reception of Faust in the Nazi periodThere are two key points to be made about this critical reception ofFaust in the Nazi period.The first concerns the complicity of Faust sreception with Nazi goals and the second indicates that a longer tradi-tion supported this reception.Both of these factors indicate that themoral pleasure engendered by Faust was both compatible with a Nazicultural agenda and part of a gradually established structure of ethicaljudgement and aesthetic pleasure that had been developing in Germanysince at least 1870 based upon the structure of Goethe s drama.Accounts of Faust s reception agree that the ideological goals withrespect to violence, sacrifice and the individual s role in society devel-oped by the Nazis were not a falsification but an outgrowth of the ideasthat were promoted by Goethe critics in Germany beginning in theearly nineteenth century and becoming institutionalized by the endof the nineteenth century.Hans Schwerte points out that there was anoverwhelming (though not unanimous) complicity of the Germanistikprofession with the goals of National Socialism,14 and Karl RobertMandelkow nuances this judgement by demonstrating a conflict withinGoethe criticism in this period between a more ideologically hard-lineNazi group and a conservative, but non-Nazi, group that emphasizedthe aesthetic and play character of Goethe s work over the ideologicalelements.15 The differentiation between the two groups is especially sig-nificant for understanding Faust s reception, because it neatly describesthe dichotomy between the ideological direction of the tragedy and the play character especially evident in the Walpurgis Night scenes.If thetwo strategies for reading the drama are either an ideological supportfor the Nazi movement or a turn away from ideology towards the purityof aesthetic play, the ability of both interpretive strategies to co-existwithin a single Nazi-dominated reception context indeed within sin-gle Nazi-oriented critics indicates the complementary relationship ofthe two strategies that also exists within the drama itself.For the first group, the congruence between readings of Faust andNazi ideology occurred at the basic level of the idealization of strivingand the role of violence in Goethe s text, as George Schott, an often-cited interpreter during the Nazi era describes:Faust is the ingenious man who cannot be content with having andpossessing either material or spiritual possessions.In this man therelives a drive to become a genius of the world and of the deed.Thepaltry contentment and the merely pleasurable that are the essence 94 David Panof the philistine are foreign to him, at least to the truly Faustian man.His life is characterized by a certain restlessness that compels him tosearch ceaselessly for the primal foundations of being. So I perceivethe inmost force/ That bonds the very universe : this is what guidesall his deliberations.Yet, we must express this more clearly and morepowerfully: here in the Faustian man there lives a passionate willthat surges from the primal depths and does not shy away from anymeans of fulfilling the numerous tasks with which life confrontshim even to the point of allying himself with the devil!16Schott links the ideal of activity and continual development with atrivialization of the violent side-effects of this ideal and lays out thisfearlessness in the face of violence as the motivator of the tragic effectof the Gretchen and Baucis and Philemon stories.The originality ofGoethe s structuring of tragedy lies in the push towards an amoralattitude that can see beyond the injustice of the tragedy in order torecognize the legitimacy of the higher goals for which Gretchen andher family and Baucis and Philemon are sacrificed.17 Finally, he linksthe ideal of individual development to a development of the entire peo-ple.Citing Faust s dream of opening up land for an entire people todevelop in freedom ( Such teeming would I see upon this land,/ Onacres free among free people stand (ll.11579 11580)) Schott claims thatthis link to the people is the final triumph of the Faustian man : Thisis the Faustian man who has arrived at the pinnacle of life: his breastfilled with a thousand plans and ideals, sweeping across the farthestdistances, boldness extending to impudence, craving the impossible,self-forgetful, elevating the people s welfare to the highest law. 18 Thisfinal connection between the ideal of development and the good of thepeople becomes the element that indicates how the Nazis embodiedthese Faustian ideals.Though Belgum, Kirst-Gundersen and Levesque read Schott as oneof many second-rate writers who engaged in mere propaganda , theypoint out that in sheer numbers, they far outweighed that group ofGermanists from the 1930s whose names are still remembered.19 Butmore than that, Schott essentially captures the ethical structure of sac-rifice embedded in Goethe s Faust and which was confirmed by theleading Goethe scholars in the entire period from 1870 to 1940 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Even though the basic structure of Faust establishes a world withoutsacrifice, the result is not a reduction of violence, but a tragedy builtaround the conflict between violence and escapist diversion that wehave already seen in Goebbels s call for a theatre that could provideboth ideologically serious drama and a diversion from everyday reali-ties.Because Goethe s tragedy provides a sense of the inescapability ofviolence while at the same time offering ironic and satirical entertain-ment, it was well suited for the role of both diverting from but alsopreparing the German people for the kinds of violence that the Naziscarried out during their rule.Consequently, the Nazi aesthetic pleasurein Faust may have stemmed from its ability to establish a culture thatwould at least tolerate racist and anti-Semitic principles if they wereperceived as necessary for the greater good and in spite of the violencethey implied.The rejection of sacrifice in Faust functions not to quellviolence, but to remove the limitations on the individual sovereign willthat a system of repression requires. The Structure of Aesthetic Pleasure 93Critical reception of Faust in the Nazi periodThere are two key points to be made about this critical reception ofFaust in the Nazi period.The first concerns the complicity of Faust sreception with Nazi goals and the second indicates that a longer tradi-tion supported this reception.Both of these factors indicate that themoral pleasure engendered by Faust was both compatible with a Nazicultural agenda and part of a gradually established structure of ethicaljudgement and aesthetic pleasure that had been developing in Germanysince at least 1870 based upon the structure of Goethe s drama.Accounts of Faust s reception agree that the ideological goals withrespect to violence, sacrifice and the individual s role in society devel-oped by the Nazis were not a falsification but an outgrowth of the ideasthat were promoted by Goethe critics in Germany beginning in theearly nineteenth century and becoming institutionalized by the endof the nineteenth century.Hans Schwerte points out that there was anoverwhelming (though not unanimous) complicity of the Germanistikprofession with the goals of National Socialism,14 and Karl RobertMandelkow nuances this judgement by demonstrating a conflict withinGoethe criticism in this period between a more ideologically hard-lineNazi group and a conservative, but non-Nazi, group that emphasizedthe aesthetic and play character of Goethe s work over the ideologicalelements.15 The differentiation between the two groups is especially sig-nificant for understanding Faust s reception, because it neatly describesthe dichotomy between the ideological direction of the tragedy and the play character especially evident in the Walpurgis Night scenes.If thetwo strategies for reading the drama are either an ideological supportfor the Nazi movement or a turn away from ideology towards the purityof aesthetic play, the ability of both interpretive strategies to co-existwithin a single Nazi-dominated reception context indeed within sin-gle Nazi-oriented critics indicates the complementary relationship ofthe two strategies that also exists within the drama itself.For the first group, the congruence between readings of Faust andNazi ideology occurred at the basic level of the idealization of strivingand the role of violence in Goethe s text, as George Schott, an often-cited interpreter during the Nazi era describes:Faust is the ingenious man who cannot be content with having andpossessing either material or spiritual possessions.In this man therelives a drive to become a genius of the world and of the deed.Thepaltry contentment and the merely pleasurable that are the essence 94 David Panof the philistine are foreign to him, at least to the truly Faustian man.His life is characterized by a certain restlessness that compels him tosearch ceaselessly for the primal foundations of being. So I perceivethe inmost force/ That bonds the very universe : this is what guidesall his deliberations.Yet, we must express this more clearly and morepowerfully: here in the Faustian man there lives a passionate willthat surges from the primal depths and does not shy away from anymeans of fulfilling the numerous tasks with which life confrontshim even to the point of allying himself with the devil!16Schott links the ideal of activity and continual development with atrivialization of the violent side-effects of this ideal and lays out thisfearlessness in the face of violence as the motivator of the tragic effectof the Gretchen and Baucis and Philemon stories.The originality ofGoethe s structuring of tragedy lies in the push towards an amoralattitude that can see beyond the injustice of the tragedy in order torecognize the legitimacy of the higher goals for which Gretchen andher family and Baucis and Philemon are sacrificed.17 Finally, he linksthe ideal of individual development to a development of the entire peo-ple.Citing Faust s dream of opening up land for an entire people todevelop in freedom ( Such teeming would I see upon this land,/ Onacres free among free people stand (ll.11579 11580)) Schott claims thatthis link to the people is the final triumph of the Faustian man : Thisis the Faustian man who has arrived at the pinnacle of life: his breastfilled with a thousand plans and ideals, sweeping across the farthestdistances, boldness extending to impudence, craving the impossible,self-forgetful, elevating the people s welfare to the highest law. 18 Thisfinal connection between the ideal of development and the good of thepeople becomes the element that indicates how the Nazis embodiedthese Faustian ideals.Though Belgum, Kirst-Gundersen and Levesque read Schott as oneof many second-rate writers who engaged in mere propaganda , theypoint out that in sheer numbers, they far outweighed that group ofGermanists from the 1930s whose names are still remembered.19 Butmore than that, Schott essentially captures the ethical structure of sac-rifice embedded in Goethe s Faust and which was confirmed by theleading Goethe scholars in the entire period from 1870 to 1940 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]