Why Read FAUST? Why Read FAUST now?

Organised in joint collaboration with Department of German, University of Mumbai
 
Discussants: Prof Rajendra Dengle and Romit Roy 
Respondent: Prof Vibha Surana 

Followed by Reading of excerpts from Faust in five languages  
Presented by students of German Department, University of Mumbai 


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust is a tragic play and the best-known version of the Faust story. It was published in two parts: Faust Part One (Faust: der Tragödie erster Teil) and Faust Part Two (Faust: der Tragödie zweiter Teil). 4612 lines long, the play is a closet drama, meaning that it is meant to be read rather than performed.
Part One was preliminarily completed by Goethe in 1806. The 1808 publication was followed by the revised 1828–1829 edition, which was the last to be edited by Goethe himself. Goethe finished writing Faust Part Two in 1832, the year of his death.
In contrast to Faust Part One, the focus here is no longer on the soul of Faust, which has been sold to the devil, but rather on social phenomena such as psychology, history and politics. The second part formed the principal occupation of Goethe’s last years and appeared only posthumously in 1832.
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. "Faust" and the adjective "Faustian" imply sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain.
Recently, the relevance of Faust has come under critical lens. It is time to take a fresh look at this profound masterwork with deep philosophical implications and social criticism. It is time to ask the Gretchenfrage today: Why read Faust? Why read Faust now?
Prof Rajendra Dengle and Romit Roy make a discursive intellectual inquiry, Prof. Vibha Surana will respond.

The play is a closet drama, meaning that it is meant to be read rather than performed. In session I, the students of Department of German, University of Mumbai will read excerpts from Faust Part I in German, English, Bangla, Hindi and Marathi, curated by Vibha Surana and Mihir Kulkarni.
 

About the speakers:

Rajendra Dengle 
 

© Rajendra Dengle

Professor Emeritus of German Studies, Rajendra Dengle looks back on a long career as a university lecturer, scholar, dean and literary expert. Dengle first studied philosophy and German at the University of Pune; in 1979, he received his MA after studying German literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi. In 1990, he completed his doctorate at JNU on the topic "Ödön von Horváth: In Search of an 'Other' Religiosity?" 
 
From 1979 to July 2021, he then taught at JNU at the Centre of German Studies (CGS), School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, where his teaching focussed on literary theory, history of German literature, modern German literature, phenomenology of literary communication and cultural studies. 
 
His research interests were mainly in the philosophy of language, comparative literature of German and Marathi, and literary translation. 
 
Doctoral and postgraduate scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) took him to the universities of Bielefeld, Bonn, Heidelberg, Bayreuth, Wuppertal and Freiburg. 
 
He worked as Secretary of the Goethe Society of India from 2004 to 2010 and was responsible for the publication of its yearbook. Dengle has translated numerous publications and literary texts from Marathi into German. 

Selected Translations:

• Müller, Hertha: Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt (Kaanch Ke Ansoo), together with Namita Khare, Vaani Prakashan, Delhi, 2014.
• Müller, Hertha: Atemschaukel (Bhookh Ka Vyakran), together with Namita Khare, Vaani Prakashan, Delhi, 2014. 

 

Romit Roy 

@ Romit Roy

Romit Roy studied German at the Centre of German Studies, School of Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and New Delhi. After finishing his M.Phil. he joined the Department of English and Other Modern European Languages (DEOMEL) at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, where he has been teaching German since 1990. In 2014, Romit and his colleagues teaching modern European Languages started the Centre for Modern European Languages, Literatures and Culture Studies (CMELLCS) and undergraduate and postgraduate programs (BA Hons.) in French, German, Italian and Russian were introduced. 
Romit’s research interests include, apart from German literature, culture and language, the oeuvre of Theodor W. Adorno, especially his writings on music. The musical writings of Rabindranath Tagore, as well as his internationalism and pacifism that served as the philosophical foundation of the idea of Visva-Bharati are areas of interest for Romit. Romit also writes and speaks on the music of two eminent esraj-artists of Santiniketan, Late Pandit Aseshchandra Bandyopadhyaya and Late Pandit Ranadhir Roy. 
 

Vibha Surana 
 

© Vibha Surana

Vibha Surana is Professor at the Department of German, University of Mumbai. Her areas of specialisation include cross cultural discourses, comparative aesthetics, German language, literature and didactics. She is a Humboldt Research Fellow and was awarded the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize in 2018 for her contribution to the field of teaching, research and international cooperation. She is member of the executive board of the Gesellschaft für interkulturelle Germanistik and the Vice President of the Goethe Society of India. Her major publications include Text und Kultur (2002), Die Europhonie der Kultur (2009), Revisiting Günter Grass. Voices from Indian and Germany (2017). 


Meher Bhoot

© Meher Bhoot

Meher Bhoot Professor and Head at the Department of German, University of Mumbai. Her areas of specialisation are German Literature with a focus on Literature of the German Minorities, Postcolonial Studies and Culture Studies and her areas of interest are European Cultural History and European History of Art. She is an active member of the German Institutes Partnership with the Universities of Göttingen and Freiburg in Germany. Under the aegis of this partnership she has been a Guest Professor at the Department of Intercultural German Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany in 2017. She has been a DAAD Fellow since 2004 and has also been a recipient of the Rotary Cultural and Ambassadorial Scholarship (1997-98).
Apart from articles published, some of the co-edited volumes include, Inheriting Gandhi (2022), Gandhi Then and Now (2022), The Covid Spectrum (2021), Revisiting Günter Grass. Voices from India and Germany (2017), Interkulturelle Momente (2014), Einfach menschlich (2011).