Goethe's Faust: writing the soul

 With PABLO BENAYAS, PhD student Philology

Today we travel to Weimar, the former capital of German culture, to remember an immense, complex, and fascinating work: Faust, the great tragedy by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1832. 

The name Faust may remind you of "the subject sells his soul to the devil"... and yes, that's roughly the gist of it. But Faust is not just a story about pacts with demons, but a mirror of the human soul, a journey through knowledge, power, desire... and the contradictions of a Europe in the midst of transformation.

What are a Roman emperor, Helen of Troy, alchemists, bankers, demons, and angels doing in the same work? Why did it take Goethe more than 60 years to finish it? And what can Faust tell us today?

We spoke with Pablo Benayas, PhD student department Philology the University of Navarra, about why it is still worthwhile to read the classics, even—or especially—in plenary session of the Executive Council .

Lessons learned from this episode:

• Figure and relevance in current literature

• Complexity and structure of Faust

• The soul according to Goethe

• The character of Mephistopheles

• Moral dimension of the work

• Human ambition, progress, and its limits

• Mythology, Science, Politics, and Philosophy Faust

• The message and worldview in Faust

• The cultural influence of Faust

• Faust's relevance in the 21st century