Author/Authors :
ERSÖZ KOÇ, Evrim Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi - Edebiyat Fakültesi - Amerikan Kültürü ve Edebiyati Bölümü, Turkey
Title Of Article :
‘That Light is not Bright’: Cosmos vs. Chaos in Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights
Abstract :
Written in 1938 by Gertrude Stein, Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights reinterprets the Faustian myth presenting the character Doctor Faustus as a man who has sold his soul to Mephistopheles to make electric light. The setting of the play is a chaotic universe in which the cycle of day and night is broken. Doctor Faustus, along with his companions, is stuck in this artificially lit space in which they are perpetually subject to the “unbright” light of electricity. The use of the light/dark opposition in the play is reminiscent of a similar use in biblical literature in which the cosmos/chaos opposition is accompanied by the opposition of light/dark, with the light serving as a metaphor for providing the cosmos and abolishing chaos. The aim of this study is to compare the use of light in biblical narratives as a necessary divine tool to create an ordered cosmos out of a dark chaos with Stein’s metaphoric use of “electric light” in order to understand Stein’s criticism of modern technological chaos.
NaturalLanguageKeyword :
Cosmos vs. Chaos , Light vs. Darkness , Gertrude Stein , Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights
JournalTitle :
Mediterranean Journal Of Humanities
