Publication: Periodicity and intimations of a Judaic universe in David Mamet’s Faustus
Authors
Safaei, Mohammad
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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Abstract
David Mamet’s Faustus presents a complex amalgam of various ideas, traditions and cultures. After a
preliminary discussion in this essay on the adaptive status of Mamet’s Faustus and on the myth of Faustus
throughout history, I approach the notion of periodicity and time in the play, in its religious and anthropological
contexts. I further investigate the same theme in tandem with the Nietzschean doctrine of eternal recurrence and
its intersection with Judaism and, in specific, with Jewish philosopher Soloveitchik’s conception of halakhic
man and its antithetical selves, namely cognitive man and homo religiosus. Exploring the echoes of Jewish
existentialism in the works of Soloveitchik, I argue that the play, which is categorized as a typical adaptation of
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, posits serious questions as to human existence and the significance of intellectual
negation and spiritual challenge within a Judaic universe. The essay, beyond the analysis of intertextuality in
Mamet’s Faustus, tends to underscore the play’s distinguished contribution to the myth of Faustus from a Judaic
perspective.
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