In Search of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice: between Lucian and Walt Disney

At fi rst glance, the movie by Jon Turteltaub entitled The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010) seems not to have any connections with Greco-Roman antiquity whatsoever. To fi nd the hidden connection we have to go back to year 1797 when Johann Wolfgang Goethe publi-shed his famous ballad Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice)Almost a century later, this work inspired a French composer Paul Dukas to write his masterpiece, the sympho-nic scherzo L’apprenti sorcier. Dukas’ music became the leitmotif of both Disney’s movies: Fantasia (1940) and Fantasia2000 (1999) whose action is based on Goethe’s ballad. Also, the basic elements of the plot were used in one of the episodes of the series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1961). This is where we touch the ancient roots of the story. A good friend of J.W. Goethe, Christoph Martin Wieland, happened to have published in 1789 the fi rst complete German translation of Lucian of Samosata’s (120-180 AD) works, including a dialogue entitled Philopseudes (The Lover of Lies). The tenth story told in Philopseudes turned out to be very similar to the one written by J. W. Goethe and then adapted into Disney’s and Turteltaub’s movies. In my paper I try to show the transmission of the Lucianic text from antiquity to modern fi lm adaptations. The original Lucian tale, rewritten by J.W. Goethe, becomes very infl uential. The so-called “sorcerer’s apprentice syndrome” can be found at the root of many fantastic stories in which humans could not curb their creations (i.e. robots) which eventually would turn against their makers. The primary focus of this paper is on how the story of a young apprentice changed over centuries and how it was adopted by cinematography.

Şarlatan Yolcusu ve Göç Edebiyatı: Çatışma Modeli bağlamında bir okuma

Orta Çağdan hemen sonra gelen Yeni Çağın başlarındaki bilimsel tartışmalarda şarlatanlar çok büyük bir önem taşırdı; çünkü o dönemde söz sahibi olan bilim insanları onları olumsuz örnekler olarak görür ve bu olumsuzlukları kullanarak bilim için ideal ölçütler saptarlardı. Bilimde bu şekilde “negatif figür” (Hole Rößler) olarak gösterilen şarlatanlar, edebiyatta daha çeşitli ve kompleks biçimlerde ortaya çıkmakta, hatta kimi zaman karizmatik kişilikler olarak tasvir edilmektedir. Bu durum özellikle şarlatan figürünün yoğun bir şekilde sahnelendiği Alman Edebiyatında 18. yüzyılın sonlarında, 19. yüzyılın başlarında görülmektedir. Aynı zamanda söz konusu devirde yazılmış eserlerdeki şarlatanların neredeyse hiçbirinin yerleşik yaşam insanı olmadığı göze çarpmaktadır. Bitmeyen yolculukları gibi bu bağlamda sürekli kıyafet değiştirmeleri ve rol yapmaları da onların kişiliklerine esrarengiz bir hava katmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, Christoph Martin Wieland, Friedrich Schiller ve Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’ye ait eserlerdeki şarlatan karakterinin farklı işlevleri irdelenecektir. Çalışmanın sonucunda şimdiye kadar gözardı edilmiş şarlatan figürüyle birlikte Göç Edebiyatı kapsamındaki araştırmalara yeni bir bakış açısı kazandırmak hedeflendirmektedir.ABSTRACT IN ENGLISHCharlatan Traveller and Migration Literature: A Reading with the Conflict Model At the beginning of modern times, charlatans emerged as of great importance to the scientific discourse of those spokesmen of the scholar community who use them as negative examples and thus define ideal standards for their profession. Charlatans were seen as “negative figures” (Hole Rößler) in science; however, the way they were judged in literature was more complex and varied, and, in some texts, they even seem congenial and charismatic. This phenomenon can be noticed in German literature especially around 1800 when the charlatan figure is used very often. Moreover, it is conspicuous that charlatans in literary depictions of this period generally have no home and travel around constantly. Furthermore, the fact that they change their clothing and camouflage permanently offers to their identity a mysterious dimension. In the field of studies designated as ,Literature and Migration’, this paper aims to provide interpretative perspectives and, in this respect, examines the issue concerning the poetic functions of charlatan travellers as rendered textually in a number of relevant passages chosen from the works of Christoph Martin Wieland, Friedrich Schiller, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Geschichte der Menschheit

Mit Iselins Geschichte der Menschheit wird ein historisches Zeugnis der Aufklärung erstmals seit über 200 Jahren in einer neuen Edition zugänglich. Mit der von seinen Zeitgenossen ebenso gepriesenen wie verfemten Schrift etablierte Iselin ein neues historiographisches Genre, die Menschheitsgeschichte, das die Geschichtsphilosophie nachhaltig prägen sollte. Erstmals 1764 erschienen, wurde das Werk im 18. Jahrhundert allein in deutscher Sprache sechs Mal aufgelegt und fand große Aufmerksamkeit bei den Zeitgenossen Christoph Martin Wieland, Julie Bondeli, Moses Mendelssohn und Johann Gottfried Herder. Herausgefordert von den Theorien Montesquieus sowie Rousseaus und inspiriert von Vertretern der schottischen Aufklärung verschränkte Iselin in seinem Hauptwerk Geschichte und Anthropologie. Den Gegensatz von Natur und Kultur suchte er mit einem an der biologischen und psychologischen Entwicklung des einzelnen Menschen orientierten Schema der Geschichte zu überwinden. Iselin erzählt die Geschichte der Menschheit als eine natürliche Funktion und Entwicklung dessen, was im Menschen bereits angelegt ist. Die Edition beruht auf dem Text der letzten von Iselin selbst besorgten Auflage, die 1779 erschien. Sie erschließt erstmals die vielen hundert bibliographischen Anmerkungen. Damit werden die Arbeitsweise und Argumentationsmuster Iselins im Detail nachvollziehbar.