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Ma Proposal
Ma Proposal
Faculty of Arts
A Comparative Study of Goethe's Faust and Tawfiq Al Hakim's the Martyr, and Two
Other Plays: A Reader Response Critique
An M A Thesis Proposal
Submitted to:
Faculty of Arts
MASTER OF ATS
[ENGLISH LITERATURE]
By:
Table of contents:
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………3
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….……3
Aim……………………………………………………………………………………………………..….…8
Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………...…….9
Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………….…..9
Research Questions……………………………………………………………………………….…12
Tentative Chapterization………………………………………………………………………….13
Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………………….15
3
Abstract
:Introduction
Tawfiq Al Hakim states that man sometimes feels nostalgic towards some other, more
superior being. He maintains that religion does not necessarily represent this idea and,
as a result, man awaits a miracle that may bring this idea to fruition but within a
scientific framework. According to Al Hakim the concern about spaceships, people's
hope that these spacecrafts deliver a message from a better world and more superior
beings is just an expression that calms the feelings that have become dry after the
drought of religious resources. This emphasizes the relation between Al Hakim's text
.and Nietzsche's concept of the superman
William M. Salter (American lecturer and author) asserts:" The superman is nothing
but the crystallization of the thought that man can develop beyond the present stage of
his existence". (Nietzsche's superman p.423)
He continues:
Great men such as Ceaser, Da Vinci, Goethe, Napoleon, and Bismarck have some
qualities of the superman but they fail to achieve it somehow. (p.423)
He claims" they were men of power, took great and fearful responsibilities, but were
spoiled by some defects". (p. 423)
Al Hakim, on the other hand, confirms that man is a spiritually and materialistically
balanced creature. He asserts that it is important for humanity to return to the
condition of equilibrium between the intellect and emotion, between logic and belief,
and between man and his creator.
All these draw a relationship between Al Hakim and Nietzsche's philosophies, in the
sense that both are attempts to a deep understanding of the human psyche. All these
elements highlight a relationship between Al Hakim and Nietzsche's philosophies in
the sense that both are attempts at a deep understanding of the human psyche.
In his The Superman in Nietzsche's Philosophy and Goethe's Faust, Schuylus Dean
Hoslett, confirms that:
The idea of superman did not originate with Goethe nor did it reach completion in
the philosophy of Nietzsche. Certain interpretations appeared in Greek mythology,
in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, in Don Quixote, in Milton's Paradise Lost. Carlyle,
Ruskin, and Ibsen have been supporters of the superman, but more than any other
man of letters, Goethe approached the completely developed type. There is a
reason to believe that Nietzsche was a student of Goethe and that his conception of
Ubermensch was an outgrowth of Goethe's. The position of pupil to teacher is as
clear between Goethe and Nietzsche as it is between Luther and Goethe. In some
respects Nietzsche's was a distorted concept. (p.294)
In his Aesthetic Life and Tragic Insight in Nietzsche's Use of Goethe, Paul
Bishop says:
Leary Dantol ( a researcher in Canisius college) in her George Bernard Shaw and the
Übermensch states that:
"Shaw believed that the Superman is being over clear and definite will."
Shaw shared with Nietzsche the belief that greatness had little or no moral sense. The
Superman might be more determined, more valiant but not necessarily more unselfish,
more compassionate than ordinary man. Moreover, the Superman because of his
superior qualities could demand to rule over all other men. (George Bernard…. P.5)
Don Joanne the philosophic man notes that because of a desire for romantic delights
those who cannot assume responsibilities well die because they seek not the service of
life but their own willful pleasure.(p.86)
Furthermore, Mills confirms that: "Shaw expressed his admiration for Nietzsche.
Shaw defines himself as an English or an Irish Nietzsche".(p.49)
“You must be prepared to talk about Nietzsche or else retire from especially
aristocratically minded society.” (p.50)
Mills states:
So far Shaw is on a common ground with Nietzsche there are few similarities
between Nietzsche’s Superman and Shaw’s Superman. Nietzsche says that
man will be as an ape to Superman a laughing stock a thing of shame. Shaw so
often used a similar analogy to compare men to Superman.(p.50)
"Shaw heroes constantly attack hedonism and Epicureanism because he believed that
to secure the freedom to do the superman's work the pleasure instincts must be
subdued Nietzsche too attacked hedonism and Epicreonism"(p.50)
All of these features illustrate the link between Nietzsche, Goethe, Shaw, and Al-
Hakim. This makes it possible to study their works together.
Marlowe’s tragedies are one man tragedies. The heroes of his plays are towering
personalities who dwarf all other characters in the play.
There are two ways of looking at Doctor Faustus. We can view it as a Christian play
in the Morality tradition or as a play glorifying the Renaissance concept of the
‘superman’.
6
In her Why is the Collection of Short Stories Show me Allah important? Amira
Shehata writes in Alyoum Al Sabeaa newspaper:
This is how Tawfiq Al-Hakim opens his own gateway into more thorny areas.
This time he does not put the expected end to the story. This has led to a bitter
controversy. Satan the Martyr is regarded as an idea that does not usually
come to our minds. The story asks the question "what if Satan wanted truly to
repent one day". Here the author creates an encounter, in his own way,
between Satan and the leaders of the three divine religions, then a dialogue
between Satan and the arch angel Gabriel. This dialogue will attract the
reader's attention and he will re-read it several times. The reader will be
astonished and will have a lot of questions. Some readers will support the text
but other readers will object. This encounter will obsess the reader's thinking
regardless of his response. The story stimulates the reader's thought and
feelings. (Why….)
This study seeks to explain why the text has preoccupied the researcher's
thought. Furthermore, It attempts to analyze the reasons that impulse other
readers to oppose the story. This quotation highlights the relationship between
the text and reader-response theory.
He confirms:
He emphasizes:
Dr Faustus has been well termed the spiritual autobiography of the age. The
play combines the features of a medieval morality play with the sense of spiritual
doubt which is regarded as the core idea of modernity. (English Renaissance…, p.16)
7
In her Marlowe Presents the Greed of a Renaissance Man in Dr. Faustus Dr.
Muna Shrestha (Associate Professor, Tribhuvan University) asserts that:
The concept of the Renaissance man emphasizes man's individuality and his
potentials. The concept is tightly related to the Elizabethan tragedies in general
and to Marlowe's Dr.Faustus in particular. The protagonist, Dr.Faustus, is
independent. He seeks ultimate power through knowledge. This reminds the
reader of Nietzsche's will to power. Dr. Faustus is regarded as an overreaching
protagonist with unlimited aspirations. The play portrays the capacities and
capabilities of a Renaissance individual to gain ultimate power. Dr. Faustus
and his pact with the devil bring into light the relationship between the play
and Nietzsche's claim that God is dead.
He argues:
He continues:
eminence. The play opens with Faustus who wishes to 'gain a diety". He states
half-truths as the basis of his situation. (p.3)
He demonstrates:
Goethe's motivations for writing Faust over a sixty-year span were complex
and grew even more complex as the decades progressed. The original
motivation to write a play about the Faust legend was likely nationalism. He
sought to remind the German people of the German myth. (Faust in context …
P.4)
She confirms:
There are significant similarities and differences between the two Faust plays.
The most striking similarity between them is that both of the protagonists are
possessed by curiosity, a burning desire to learn nature's secrets. Each
character is frustrated by the limited scope of knowledge available to him.
(p.25)
She states:
It is known that Goethe has been familiar with Marlowe's version of the play,
having commented on it in 1829, "how great! It is all well planned". But it is
not known at what point in time he has read it.(p.25)
9
She emphasizes:
They claim that Faust represents the true not the ideal
humanity. They claim that Faust develops morally throughout
the play until he reaches the peak of humanity. (p.11)
Shaw has taken the legend of Don Juan in its Mozartian form and transformed it into a play
that tackles creative evolution. Shaw transforms the legendary Don Juan into a superhero.
He uses Moliere's satiric technique and Mozart’s operatic style to sing the philosophy of
Goethe and Shaw’s creative evolution. (p.134)
Shaw employs the concept of “superman” in his play as the English equivalent
of the Nietzschean term “Ubermensch”, in order to show the similarity
between himself and Nietzsche. The play embodies the concept of
evolutionary development and uses the concept of “superman” in order to
create a super race. The play tackles the question of how this higher human
race can be eugenically created. The play can be regarded as a love comedy
between man, as a thinker, and woman, as a pursuer. Man should sacrifice his
individuality for the sake of the life force. ( Ala Hussien Oda, Characters
appraisement in George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman, p.57)
The play highlights the conflict between those who support the theory of
Creative Evolution by advocating the new, the different, the difficult, and the
unconventional on the one hand and those who oppose the Creative Evolution
by adopting the old, the easy, and the conventional on the other hand.
( Characters appraisement…,p.57)
11
Aim:
A lot of readers, critics, and religious leaders condemn Hakim's Satan the Martyr,
which was published around 1936. They claim that it celebrates godless ideas. This
thesis postulates the idea and attempts to determine the aim beyond Al Hakim's work.
It invites people not to judge the author unless they have an account of his
philosophical and intellectual background.
Methodology:
A critical theory that is mainly associated with the critic Stanley Fish. It emphasizes
that the reader creates the meaning of a literary text rather than discovering it.
A general term for modern literary theories that focus on the responses of the
readers to literary works rather than the works themselves. It is not a single
agreed theory but rather, a shared concern with some problems associated with
the nature of the reader’s contribution to the meanings of literary works,
approached from various perspectives such as structuralism, psychoanalysis,
Phenomenology, and hermeneutics. ( Chris Baldick, Oxford Concise
Dictionary of Literary Terms, P.212)
He Continues:
All these approaches share a common element: the production of the meanings
within the reading process. (p.212)
In her Critical Theory Today, Louis Tyson defines reader-response theory as:
12
A broad, exciting, evolving domain of literary studies that can help us learn
about our own reading processes and how they relate to, among other things,
specific elements in the texts we read, our life experiences, and the intellectual
community of which we are a member. (p.169)
The reading process emerged during the 1930s as a reaction against the
growing tendency to reject the reader’s role in creating meaning, a
tendency that became a formal principle of the New Criticism that
dominated critical practice in the 1940s and 1950s. The New Critics
believed that the timeless meaning of the text—what the text is—is
contained in the text alone. Its meaning is not a product of the author’s
intention and does not change with the reader’s response. (p.170)
According to Tyson reader- response critics share two beliefs:
1) The role of the reader cannot be omitted from our understanding
of literature.
2) The readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to
them by an objective literary text; rather they actively make the
meaning they find in literature. (p170)
Tyson states that:
This second belief, that readers actively make meaning, suggests, of course,
that different readers may read the same text quite differently. In fact, reader-
response theorists believe that even the same reader reading the same text on
two different occasions will probably produce different meanings because so
many variables contribute to our experience of the text. Knowledge we’ve
acquired between our first and second reading of a text, personal experiences
that have occurred in the interim, a change in mood between our two
encounters with the text, or a change in the purpose for which we’re reading it
can all contribute to our production of different meanings for the same text.
(p.170)
may or may not reveal the meaning of the text, but to a discerning eye it always
reveals the psychology of the reader. (p.183)
Literature Review:
The reader response approach is based on the assumption that a literary work takes
place in a mutual relationship between the reader and the text when the reader
demystifies literature and links it to his/her individual experience. Emotional reactions
that grow out of this reciprocal bond can consolidate classroom instruction (Bleich,
1975). Rosenblatt’s (1978) transactional view affirms that readers are experience
builders and the text is an activating stimulus and serves as a guide, a regulator,
a blueprint, and an avenue for interpretation. Put another way, the text activates the
reader’s early experiences concerning his/her experiences with literature and with
his/her life; guides for the selection, rejection and order of what comes forth; and
regulates what should be brought to the reader’s attention.
In his Satan, Abbas Al Akkad refers to both texts; he says that Satan is presented as a
symbol of revolution in many European works of arts but not in many Arabic works.
He states:
Satan the martyr, by our talented colleague Tawfiq Al Hakim, was published in 1953.
Although it is short it is regarded as one of the best texts written for this purposes in
all languages.(p.145)
"Al Hakim must have in mind the influence of Nietzsche and other nineteenth century
philosophers such as Kierkegaard have exerted on modern Western literature" .(The
Treatment…p.12)
This research attempts to find out how far Al Hakim is influenced by these Western
philosophers and how he attempts to modify their thoughts in order to suit the Islamic
culture.
In his The Impact of European Drama on Two Arab Playwrights: Tawfiq Al Hakim
and Kateb Yacin, Ahmed Zayed Barazanji confirms that:
Although the first group of plays was not adopted from European
literature, its influence is evedient in their style, characterization, and
dramatic structure. They are basically influenced by European
playwrights as Ibsen, Shaw, and Pirandello as Al Hakim himself admits.
(The Impact… p.27)
This means that Al Hakim has had the concept of the superman in mind
as Ibsen and Shaw are two important playwrights who introduced the
concept in their works. This research aims to find out the elements of the
concept presented in each of the texts and how each author adapts it.
Eric Bentley, a British-born American theatre critic & playwright called Man
and Superman as “The supreme triumph of Shaw’s dramaturgical dialects”.
Arthur Bingham Walkey praised Shaw as ‘a man who can give us a refined
intellectual pleasure’. Critics also find the Don Juan reference in the play very
interesting. Sally Peter Vogt proposes: Thematically, the fluid Don Juan myth
becomes a favorable milieu for Creative Evolution, and that ‘the legend…
becomes in Man and Superman the vehicle through which Shaw
communicates his cosmic philosophy. Essayist and critic G.K. Chesterton, as
quoted in George Bernard Shaw:
The Critical Heritage considered the book ‘fascinating and delightful’ and
called his friend Shaw to task for showing little faith in humanity. Max
Beerbohm wrote in the Saturday Review that Shaw’s characters are too flat &
priggish and that, the life-force could find no use for them.
The outcome for Goethe's Faust is much different than that of Marlowe's Doctor
Faustus. Not only does Faust attain salvation, he is celebrated as a hero in heaven.
(p.2)
17
Research Questions:
Tentative Chapterization:
Chapter one: In this chapter the researcher is going to give a detailed
definition of the reader-response theory in general and a focused definition of
the social and psychological schools.
Chapter two:
This chapter gives a clear explanation and illustration of the notion of the
superman for each of the mentioned authors. It sheds the light on the
similarities and differences between the views of the authors of the notion.
Moreover, it illuminates the influence of Bernard Shaw on Tawfiq al Hakim.
Chapter three:
This chapter postulates the elements of the different notions of the superman
on Al Hakim's Work. It gives an account of the researcher response and
commentary of the story.
Bibliography:
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2023.
Mills, Carl Henry. “Shaw’s Superman: A Re-Examination.” The Shaw Review, vol.
13, no. 2, 1970, pp. 48–58. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40682505. Accessed
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Accessed 13 June 2023.
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Karsten, Gustaf E. “Notes on Goethe’s Faust.” The Journal of English and Germanic
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http://www.jstor.org/stable/27699912. Accessed 13 June 2023.
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June 2023.
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Oda, Ala Hussein, and Jinan Al-Hajaj. “Characters’ Appraisement in George Bernard
Shaw’s Man and Superman.” Researchgate, 2018,
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