Constructing the Nation: Faust and Faust

This essay looks at the nation in Goethe’s Faust, arguing that both the völkisch nation of Faust I and the Holy Roman Empire as Kulturnation in Faust II fail because of their inability to accommodate eros. Whether Faust’s own nation in Act V of  Faust II will do better remains unclear.

“Constructing the Nation: Faust and  Faust,” forthcoming in Goethe’s Ghost: Reading and the Persistence of Literature, ed. by Richard Block and Simon Richter.