Konstantine Bregadze's Magnum Opus (Review of Konstantine Bregadze's Book “Goethe's Faust: Symbolism and Poetics”)

Abstract

Konstantine Bregadze, Associate Professor at Tbilisi State University, is a well-known and trusted scholar in the field of Georgian literary studies. His research focuses on Georgian-German literary processes, reflected in his significant books and publications: "German Romanticism" (2012), "Georgian Modernism (Grigol Robakidze, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Galaktion Tabidze)" (2013), "Modern and Modernism" (2018), and "Two Essays on Goethe" (2022). The latter is particularly noteworthy in Prof. Bregadze's research "repertoire," as it serves as a kind of prologue to his deeper engagement with the infinite world of Goethe's ideas and forms – soon followed by his 638-page study "Goethe's Faust: Symbolism and Poetics" (2024), which stands as his Magnum Opus. In this monograph, Prof. Bregadze examines in a multi- faceted and complex manner the intricate issues embedded in the "Faustian" corpus, including: the poetics of the tragedy, the essence and worldview of Faust as a character, the symbolism of Mephistopheles as a primordial cosmic force, the character of Gretchen and sexual morality, the concept of Eros, the understanding of freedom, education, intertextuality, and more. Beyond the "spinal column" of the study, the monograph's introduction is also remarkable, where the author, through philological-philosophical critical analysis, undertakes a critical-historical revision of various "Faustian paradigms" written in the past by notable Georgian and East German scholars. He proposes a repositioning of Georgian Goethe studies and Faustology within the orbit of contemporary Western European literary criticism. Of course, a single review cannot fully convey the scope, depth, and interdisciplinary richness of Prof. Bregadze's Magnum Opus, filled with competent and academically rigorous analysis that aligns with the finest traditions of Goethean and Faustian scholarship – yet with uniquely Georgian nuances. The transition into the Western European literary-critical tradition is perhaps best exemplified in Chapter Seven of Prof. Bregadze's nine-chapter monograph. His variations on Goethe's vision of modernity and the premonition of the modern age in Faust are not only reliable, engaging, and academically significant, but also serve as a "box" of new research ideas. Particularly notable is the part analyzing the laboratory scene (the "creation" of Homunculus), filled with complex symbolic and poetic interpretation, which directly engages with the issues of cloning in the modern world. This section resonates strongly with technoscientific advancements born in the modern and postmodern era, as well as with posthumanist thought. In this sense, Faust emerges as one of the most important literary and artistic sources for the new world – concerning human cloning, the "creation" of artificial humans (humanoid androids), the development of artificial intelligence, and the birth of utopian and dystopian worlds.