Dialogrhetorik

1. Faust and the Cannibals: Geographical Horizons in the Sixteenth Century

“…51 Schmidel seems to have suspected much the same. Observing violent physical disputes in the Spanish camp, he remarked: "[es] fing der Teufel gar vnter vns zu regieren an / das keiner vor dem andern sicher war" ("the devil began to rule among us, so that no one was safe with another") 52 -just as in the Faustbuch.…”

“…In part they were of this world, such as the suit for unspecified slander brought by Moxon against one John Woodcock in December 1639, in which he demanded £9 19s in damages and, with three of his witnesses sitting on the jury, due to the scarcity of upright citizens in what was then "the interior," got no more than £6 13s 4d, even though Woodcock declared that he was ready to repeat the offence. 52 Spiritual malaise erupted when both of Moxon's daughters started having "fits," which suggested traffic with the devil. While tiny, the outpost was large enough to have a male witch in residence: Hugh Parsons, he of the red coat, who was tried for witchcraft in Boston in 1651 along with his wife, Mary.…”

“…To be sure, the specifically scholarly perspective of Niebuhr's resulting publications does not allow him to hold forth on the idea of global education implied in such an attitude; but a recent editor at least hints at it when he says that Niebuhr provided "the foundation for the intellectual resurrection of the Old Orient"; without his efforts "we would presumably not be in a position today to write the history of the culture which is, after all, the foundation of our western civilization." 52 In other instructions, we find side by side the requirement to study the culture of the natives (and to treat them with respect) on the one hand, and the charge to take possession of territories only with the consent of the local population, or at least to secure the commercial interest of the seafaring nation, on the other. But beginning with Cook's first voyage (1768-1771) and Peter Simon Pallas's expedition to northern Asia (1768-1774), the former is no longer a mere means to the end of the latter as had been the case with Byron, Wallis, and Carteret.…”

“…For Forster, too (like so many others) his own lifetime is the first in which one could gain a comprehensive overview of the entire globe -the globe and, more importantly, its populations. For the ultimate benefit of this perspective, which brings into view the remotest non-European cultures and their approaches to life and living, accrues to "das Studium […] des Menschen" (V, 391-392) -and the result, in his eyes too, is "Bildung" or "allgemeine [all-round] Bildung," as he says time and again, distinguishing it from "lokale Bildung" (V, 383; VII, [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]. Such Bildung, which he also calls "cosmic," without having astronomy in mind, leads to Enlightenment, and even happiness (VII, 49; V, 292) -et ego in Tahiti.…”

“…Faust "verzagte an der Gnade Gottes" ("despaired of God's grace," F 36). When, encouraged by his neighbor, the "old man," he is nevertheless ready to ask God for grace, the devil sees to it that he renews the pact (chapters [52][53]. At the same time, there is a reminder that the devil cannot get at the pious old man ("beykommen"): "also beschützet GOtt alle fromme Christen / so sich GOtt ergeben vnnd befehlen gegen den bösen Geist" ("thus God protects all pious Christians who trust and devote themselves to God and oppose the evil spirit," F 105) -but he does not protect a sinner like Faust.…”