Myths of Modern Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe PDF
Preview Myths of Modern Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe
Canto is an imprint offering a range of tides, classic and more recent, across a broad spectrum of subject areas and interests. History, literature, biography, archaeology, politics, religion, psychology, philosophy and science are all represented in Canto's specially selected list of tides, which now offers some of the best and most accessible of Cambridge publishing to a wider readership. In their original versions, the ultimate fates of Faust, Don Quixote, and Don Juan reflect the anti-individualism of their time: Faust and Don Juan are punished in hellfire, and Don Quixote is mocked. The three represent the positive drive of individualism, which brings down on itself repression by social disapproval. A century later Defoe's Robinson Crusoe embodies a more favorable consideration of the individual, but only if one refuses to take seriously Defoe's state- ment that Crusoe's isolation is punishment for disobeying his father. In this volume Ian Watt examines these four myths of the mod- ern world, all created in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, as distinctive products of a historically new society. He shows how the original versions of Faust (1587), Don Quixote (1605), and Don Juan (ca. 1620) presented unflattering portrayals of the three, whereas the Romantic period two centuries later re-created them as admirable and even heroic. Robinson Crusoe (1719) is seen as repre- sentative of the new religious, economic, and social attitudes. All four myths have been transformed, often by major writers (Rousseau, Goethe, Byron, Dostoevsky), and given a more universal application with a favorable view of individualism. The punitive tales were turned into popular secular myths. This change came about partly because individualism had become a cultural and politi- cal product, but equally importantly because myth itself had become a concept and was therefore capable of manipulation. At the present time, the four mythic figures have retained their prestige, but their force diminishes as the mass-entertainment industry — radio, televi- sion, movies - provides so many rivals for time and influence. The four figures reveal the problems of individualism in the modern period: solitude, narcissism, and the claims of the self versus the claims of society. None of them marries or has lasting relations with women; rather, each has as his closest friend a male servant. Mephistopheles, Sancho Panza, Catalinon, and Friday are devoted till the end and happy in their subordinate role — the perfect personal servant. This suggests the self-centeredness of the four figures. Each pursues his own view of what he should be, raising strong questions about his character as a hero and about the society whose ideals he reflects. MYTHS OF MODERN INDIVIDUALISM MYTHS OF MODERN INDIVIDUALISM Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe IAN WATT Stanford University CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY IOOI 1-421 I, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1996 First published 1996 Canto edition 1997 Ubrary of Congress cataloging in publication data Watt, Ian P. Myths of modern individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe / Ian Watt. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0521 48011 6 (hardback) 1. Individualism in literature. 2. Literature and society. I. Title. PN56.157W37 1996 809'.93353 — dc2o 95-31562 CIP A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The illustrations on pages 28 and 142 are reproduced by permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library. ISBN o 521 48011 6 hardback ISBN o 521 58564 3 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2002 Contents Preface page xi Introduction xiii PART I: THREE RENAISSANCE MYTHS 1 From George Faust to Faustbuch 3 2 The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus 27 3 Don Quixote of La Mancha 48 4 El Burlador and Don Juan 90 5 Renaissance Individualism and the Counter-Reformation 120 PART II: FROM PURITAN ETHIC TO ROMANTIC APOTHEOSIS 6 Robinson Crusoe 141 7 Crusoe, Ideology, and Theory 172 8 Romantic Apotheosis of Renaissance Myths 193 9 Myth and Individualism 228 CODA: THOUGHTS ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus 245 Michel Tournier's Friday 255 Some Notes on the Present 267 Appendix: The worldwide diffusion of the myths 277 Index 285 IX Myths of Modern Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe was all but completed when Ian Watt's health deteriorated in 1994 after a serious operation. At the time of his hospitalization, he was working on final revisions in response to careful and discerning readings of the manuscript by M. H. Black and others. Ruth Watt and the publishers are extremely grateful to Linda Bree for her painstaking and constructive editorial work in the latter stages. Dr. Bree made possible the publication of this book in its present form.
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