ML 330 - Bargaining with the Devil: The Faust Legend in Literature, Film, and Music

(3.00 cr.)

The legend of a pact with the devil has long served as a metaphor for the desire to surpass the limits of human knowledge and power at any cost. Starting with the sixteenth-century Faust Book—which recounts the story of a scholar, alchemist, and necromancer who sold his soul to the devil—to the most recent cinematic, musical, and literary versions of the devil's pact, this course explores man's enduring fascination with the forbidden: evil, devil worship, witchcraft, magic, and sexuality.