goethe's faust is supposed to be this wildly influential piece of literature but i've not once heard anybody reference it, except in an advertisement of a kind of crappy YA novel. academics explain pls

Submitted by twovests in just_post

(for reference, it was when advertising "another faust", a kind of crappy YA novel about a bunch of boarding school teens who get super powers from the devil)

anyways why is it that i have never once in my life heard the worlds most wildly influential piece of literature ever discussed ever?? i hear so much about shake spear and bayowolf and naruto and jesus but not this???

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devtesla wrote

I know that a Faustian Bargain is giving up your moral integrity in exchange for power but I don't know anything about the details of the story that's referencing I'm assuming that happens.

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Dogmantra wrote (edited )

there are a few theories about story shapes (campbell's monomyth/hero's journey is probably the most famous - and reductive) and you have probably heard that "there's only seven stories", well in that theory faust is generally considered & taught to be one of them, they're mostly named after historical stories.

personally I don't buy into most theories about story types or story shapes, especially those that reduce stories to one or two or seven stories that are just retold again and again.

also you have to remember that faust was written many many years ago before people had things like teen titans go to the movies so they were much more willing to praise mediocre media

source: am an academic

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Dogmantra wrote

actually I'm not an academic anymore but I miss being at university so much, ask me questions about media theory please

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twovests OP wrote

ok

  1. what is media theory
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Dogmantra wrote

put simply it's the study of media, how it affects audiences, and why it has those effects, but you can go very very broad strokes where you get a lot of overlap with philosophy, or you can go very specific detailed & in depth where you get overlap with social science or more traditional English literature type study.

One of the most famous pieces of media theory definitely leaning towards the philosophical is Roland Barthes's Death of the Author which I imagine you have heard of.

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razz wrote

maybe you're not picking up on references because you've never read it or seen an adaptation. go watch the fw murnau version, its one of the best of the silent era

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twovests OP wrote

oh i mean i never hear it referenced by name, which i found odd. like, people mention hamlet by name. but also i am uncultured and so i probably am missing out on a lot of media that includes it

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