Event Title

Prometheus: A Cyclical Theme In Literature and History

Presentation Type

Oral and/or Visual Presentation

Presenter Major(s)

German, Spanish

Mentor Information

Donovan Anderson

Department

Modern Languages and Literatures

Location

Kirkhof Center 2201

Start Date

11-4-2012 11:00 AM

Keywords

Culture, Freedom and Control, Philosophy/ Literature, Social Science, World Perspective

Abstract

The mythological figure of Prometheus will stand at the center of this presentation. This report will focus on Prometheus by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Im Westen Nichts Neues (English title: All's Quiet on the Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque, in order to exhibit the actualization of various elements of the Promethean myth in later German history. Starting with an analysis of Goethe's poem, I will consider the way German writers have appropriated and reworked the Prometheus myth. In this observation the similarities and disparities between the myth of Prometheus and the lives and works of Goethe and Remarque (and their public reception) as well as the consequential effects on social and philosophical thought in contemporary German culture, will be presented. In this presentation the argument will be posed that Goethe and Remarque performed the functions of Promethean archetypes. At the conclusion of the presentation, the audience will be asked to think critically as to what this theme implies in modern cultures. In contemporary societies around the world political social activists, writers, etc. are persecuted. Those who openly declare new philosophies or ideologies that are seemingly strange or unfamiliar are considered, without closer inspection, to be false, or radical, in some manner or another. Goethe's works are picked apart centuries later, as Prometheus' entrails. Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues was burned during the infamous Bücherverbrennungin 1933, due to the declaration by the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Association, that it, along with hundreds of other literary works by just as many authors were un-German. It is the hope of this presenter that members of the audience will take this insight into consideration when presented with new and seemingly foolish, or strange, information.

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Apr 11th, 11:00 AM

Prometheus: A Cyclical Theme In Literature and History

Kirkhof Center 2201

The mythological figure of Prometheus will stand at the center of this presentation. This report will focus on Prometheus by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Im Westen Nichts Neues (English title: All's Quiet on the Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque, in order to exhibit the actualization of various elements of the Promethean myth in later German history. Starting with an analysis of Goethe's poem, I will consider the way German writers have appropriated and reworked the Prometheus myth. In this observation the similarities and disparities between the myth of Prometheus and the lives and works of Goethe and Remarque (and their public reception) as well as the consequential effects on social and philosophical thought in contemporary German culture, will be presented. In this presentation the argument will be posed that Goethe and Remarque performed the functions of Promethean archetypes. At the conclusion of the presentation, the audience will be asked to think critically as to what this theme implies in modern cultures. In contemporary societies around the world political social activists, writers, etc. are persecuted. Those who openly declare new philosophies or ideologies that are seemingly strange or unfamiliar are considered, without closer inspection, to be false, or radical, in some manner or another. Goethe's works are picked apart centuries later, as Prometheus' entrails. Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues was burned during the infamous Bücherverbrennungin 1933, due to the declaration by the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Association, that it, along with hundreds of other literary works by just as many authors were un-German. It is the hope of this presenter that members of the audience will take this insight into consideration when presented with new and seemingly foolish, or strange, information.