Goethes Faust and the Divan of āfiẓ: Body and Soul in Pursuit of Knowledge and Beauty

354 Pages·2019·1.754 MB·English

by  Hiwa Michaeli

HiwaMichaeli
Goethe’sFaustandtheDivanofḤāfiẓ

Hiwa Michaeli
’
Goethe s Faust
and the Divan
Ḥā ẓ
of fi
Body and Soul in Pursuit of Knowledge and Beauty
D188
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Acknowledgement
Thisundertakingcouldnotbecompletedwithoutthehelpandguidanceofthe
scholarsandfriendstowhomIwouldliketooffermygratitude.Iwouldliketo
expressmydeepestthankstomyfirstsupervisorandmentorProf.Dr.Joachim
Küpper. Iam indebtedto him for his constant support and scholarly guidance
since I shared with him my initial plans for this research to the last stages of
thisproject.WithoutProf.Küpper’scriticalexaminationsofmymanuscriptand
his evaluations and suggestions, this research could not attain the form and
depthithasinitscurrentstate.IalsoextendmydeepestgratitudetoProf.Dr.
GesaDaneforherguidanceandexpertsupervision.Withherguidance,Ideep-
ened my knowledge and critical understanding of the intellectual debates and
the important texts relevant to Goethe’s Faust, and Goethe’s time. Special
thanksareduetoProf.Dr.JohannesNiehoff-Panagiotidisforhiskindnessand
supporttoreviseandcorrectthetransliterationsofthisbook.
IthankElhamSarikhaniforherfriendship,kindnessandproofreadingofmy
manuscript. I am thankful to Keyvan Sharifi and Yusef Saadat for their friend-
ship and our intellectually stimulating discussions. I also want to thank
MaryamPalizbanandThomasEngelfortheirkindness,friendshipandsupport
at the first years of my residence in Berlin. I want to express my gratitude to
Mahdie and Stefan Krappweis, Sara Assadi and Ali Mazloomian, and Shirin
Danesh for their friendship and encouragement that helped me emotionally
duringthestagesofthisundertaking.
Mydeepestandmostheartfeltthanksgotomydearfamily.Iwanttoexpress
my gratitude to my mother to whom I dedicate this work, she is the one who
has taught me the meaning of love. I thank my dear brother whose emotional
supportandimmensebrotherlycaremadethisworkpossible.
OpenAccess.©2019HiwaMichaeli,publishedbyDeGruyter. Thisworkislicensedunder
aCreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0InternationalLicense.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110661576-201

Contents
Acknowledgement V
Introduction 1
OntheStructureofGoethe’sFaustandḤāfiẓ’sDivanandtheProblem
ofGenre 9
I DirectPursuitofKnowledgeoftheTranscendentTruth 17
I.1 DefinitionsandContextualizations 17
I.1.1 TheRepresentationofKnowledgeintheBeginningof
FaustI 17
I.1.2 KnowledgeandSelf-knowledgeinFaust 19
I.1.3 KnowledgeintheDivanofḤāfiẓ 26
I.1.4 NeoplatonicViewsastheStartingPointfortheStudyofthe
RelationBetweenBodyandSoulinGoethe’sFaustandthe
DivanofḤāfiẓ 42
I.2 TheSun,HeavenlyBodiesandtheCallforAscent
inFaust 51
I.2.1 DirectApproachtotheTranscendent:Pain,Escapeand
Fall 52
I.2.2 TheProblematizationofaMethod 57
I.2.3 SuicideasaWayofTranscendingtheBody 59
I.2.4 FlyingtowardtheSettingSun 64
I.3 DirectApproachtoKnowledgeoftheTranscendentTruth
intheDivanofḤāfiẓ 68
I.3.1 EscapingtheCageoftheBody 70
I.3.2 ThePresenceoftheSuninIslamicNeoplatonism 74
I.3.3 TheMoteandtheSun 75
I.3.4 Masīḥā(Christ)andtheSun 78
I.3.5 Self-AnnihilationastheLastHopeforAscentandUnion 85
I.4 BodyandSoulinDirectPursuitofKnowledgeofthe
TranscendentinGoethe’sFaustandtheDivanofḤāfiẓ 87
I.4.1 DirectNegativePursuitofTranscendentTruth 87
I.4.2 LightMetaphorsandtheCallforAscent 87
I.4.3 SuicideasaFailedMethodofAscent 88
I.4.4 ACriticalLookintotheMethodofSeekingKnowledge 89
VIII Contents
II TowardLife 90
II.1 TheProcessofTurningTowardLifeinFaust 90
II.1.1 ReevaluationsandModifications 90
II.1.2 PainfulWallsofExclusion 98
II.1.3 TheProcessofInclusionor‘Wiekommenwirdennausdem
Haus?’ 111
II.2 TheTurnTowardLifeintheDivanofḤāfiẓ 138
II.2.1 NatureinPersianPoetryoftheTenthandEleventh
Centuries 139
II.2.2 TheSpaceofExclusioninSaʿdīandḤāfiẓ 141
II.2.3 ElementsofExclusionintheSufiTradition 148
II.2.4 SpringasaCallforReevaluationofExclusion 159
II.2.5 DivingintotheSeaoftheWineHouse 163
II.2.6 AnxietyintheFieldofCritiqueoftheOldWorld 167
II.2.7 MediationandGoingBeyondExclusion 174
II.3 TowardLifeinGoethe’sFaustandḤāfiẓ’sDivan 187
II.3.1 SpaceofExclusion 188
II.3.2 ElementsofExclusion 189
II.3.3 InfluenceofSpringintheTurnTowardLife 189
II.3.4 AnxietyandLeavingtheOldWorldBehind 190
II.3.5 MediationandInclusioninParadox 191
III ColorfulReflections 193
III.1 TheWorldofReflectionsinGoethe’sFaust 193
III.1.1 TheActivityoftheFacultyofAppreciationofBeauty 193
III.1.2 WithinLifeastheSpaceofInclusion 207
III.1.3 TheArticulationsofFaust’sViewsintheWorldof
Inclusion 211
III.1.4 Faust’sRebirthinAnmutigeGegend 223
III.1.5 TurningfromtheSuntoItsColorfulReflections 227
III.1.6 ExploringtheReflectionsinFaust’sPathtoHelena 236
III.1.7 LynceusbetweentheSunandHelena 243
III.2 TheWorldofReflectionsintheDivanofḤāfiẓ 251
III.2.1 AHistoricalAccountofthePursuitofBeautyinSufism 251
III.2.2 EmanationofBeauty 269
III.3 TheWorldofReflectionsinGoethe’sFaustandtheDivanof
Ḥāfiẓ 310
III.3.1 BeautyastheObjectofPursuit 310
III.3.2 TheMediatedImmanenceoftheInfinite 311
III.3.3 TheCommunicativeAspectoftheInfinite 312
Contents IX
III.3.4 TheWorldasDiversificationofAttributesoftheOne 313
III.3.5 TheActivePresenceoftheOneintheHumanBeing 314
III.3.6 VeilsastheMediumofDisclosure 316
III.3.7 AbandoningtheSelfandRejoicingintheMultiplicity 316
Conclusion 320
Bibliography 332