The Jewess Waleska, Margarita and the Eternal Feminine. Some Remarks on the Her oine of the Play Reading «Faust» by I. Selvinsky · The character of Margarita appears for the first time in Goethe’s tragedy Faust I (1808) not as a heroine, but rather as a victim of love. She reappears at the end of Faust II together with the Mater Gloriosa as a symbol of the Eternal Feminine. Ilya Selvinsky’s philosophical drama Reading «Faust» (1952) includes elements and characters that recall Goethe’s Faust in a renewed guise. This contribution focuses on Waleska, the Jewish daughter of Prof. Norden – the Faust of the war era –, and identifies in her some traits of Margarita and the Eternal Feminine of Goethean descent: through self-sacrifice, she is able to redeem Norden and save the whole of humanity. By resorting to Freud’s theory of sacrifice and desire, this article compares Selvinsky’s heroine and her Goethean archetype. The image of the young Waleska is also connected to the Holocaust: a Jew himself, Selvinsky was one of the first to denounce the Shoah and condemn anti-Semitism in the Soviet territories.
L’ebrea Waleska, Margherita e l’Eterno Femminino. Considerazioni sull’eroina del dramma "Leggendo Faust” di I. Sel’vinskij
Donatella Di Leo
2023-01-01
Abstract
The Jewess Waleska, Margarita and the Eternal Feminine. Some Remarks on the Her oine of the Play Reading «Faust» by I. Selvinsky · The character of Margarita appears for the first time in Goethe’s tragedy Faust I (1808) not as a heroine, but rather as a victim of love. She reappears at the end of Faust II together with the Mater Gloriosa as a symbol of the Eternal Feminine. Ilya Selvinsky’s philosophical drama Reading «Faust» (1952) includes elements and characters that recall Goethe’s Faust in a renewed guise. This contribution focuses on Waleska, the Jewish daughter of Prof. Norden – the Faust of the war era –, and identifies in her some traits of Margarita and the Eternal Feminine of Goethean descent: through self-sacrifice, she is able to redeem Norden and save the whole of humanity. By resorting to Freud’s theory of sacrifice and desire, this article compares Selvinsky’s heroine and her Goethean archetype. The image of the young Waleska is also connected to the Holocaust: a Jew himself, Selvinsky was one of the first to denounce the Shoah and condemn anti-Semitism in the Soviet territories.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
