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Paper short abstract:

How does Goethe conceptualize and investigate natural history in the second Act of Faust II? By following the destiny of the artificial creature Homunculus, and focus on the mythical figures he meets, I will try to shed light on Goethe’s idea of Was die Welt im innersten zusammenhält.

Paper long abstract:

In the second act of Goethe’s Faust II, published postmortem in 1832, a strange trio leaves the laboratory scene of artificial human creation: the paralyzed Faust, the devil Mephisto and the half-creature” Homunculus, a spirit without a body, equipped with all knowledge in the world but captured in a glass phial. They travel through the air, through space and time “towards southeast”, to Classic Walpurgis Night – a festival of universal creation in Thessaly (Rehder, 1955), at the banks of the river Peneios, seen by the ancients as the land of magic par excellence. It is inhabited by amongst others Thessalian witches, the Earth God Seismos (invented by Goethe), and other characters from classical myths and folklore, like sphinxes, griffs and sirens. Here, too, are the natural philosophers Thales and Anaxagoras. Each traveler has its own agenda.

In this session, I will investigate how Goethe conceptualizes and investigates natural history in this highly allegorical and complex piece, by following the rise and fall of the artificial creature Homunculus. Why did he need to travel to this place to break the glass and return to nature? What are the roles of the mythical figures he meets? Which figures did comment upon and describe him, who did he speak to? It seems like Goethe gathered all necessary expertise to help the trio fulfil their different tasks, and for the audience to realize was die Welt im innersten zusammenhält.