Resumen de Gaziel, d’Apel.les Mestres: un Mefisto irònic i un Faust bohemi
This article explores the intertextual relations between Faust, by JohannWolfgang von Goethe, and two texts by Apel∙les Mestres: the poem and the dramaGaziel (from 1891 and 1909, respectively). The influence of German literature onMestres, and particularly of Goethe and Heine, is such that Gaziel can be regarded as adirect reproduction. The fact that Gaziel, Faust’s parallel, is a Poet frames the work aspart of the debate on the Artist, which was a feature of Catalan Modernisme, andrelates to Mestres’ status as a complete man of letters – draftsman, musician, poet,playwright and prose writer – which was made abundantly clear by the magnificentillustrations of the poem’s first edition. The ironic relationship between Mephisto-pholes and Gaziel provides the basis for an analysis of the function of the devil in thetwo works and the game of complicities that Mestres constructs around his character.
