Tomás Barros and his Faust: Love, Mystery and Synchronicity

• McDermid, Paul ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Saskatchewan

     University of Saskatchewan

     Canadá

     
• Localización: Galicia21: Journal of Contemporary Galician Studies, ISSN-e 2040-7181, Nº. 1, 2011, págs. 40-59
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • galego

    A lenda de Fausto segue a engaiolar a imaxinación dos escritores europeos contemporáneos aínda que, na maioría dos casos, o seu argumento é modernizado ou contextualizado polo marco da experiencia de cada voz literaria. Tomás Barros Pardo (Toledo, 1922 – A Coruña, 1986), da xeración de pos- guerra dos dramaturgos galegos, empregou os trazos fundamentais da historia de Fausto na súa peza teatral Fausto, Margarida e Aqueloutro (1993). Nesta obra Barros examina o dilema ético, e abondo vixente, da entrega por parte da ciencia do poder de destrución masiva a un goberno inmoral. Como o fixera a versión de Goethe, o drama de Barros demostra tamén a capacidade misteriosa do amor para conciliar o material co metafísico. O presente artigo examina a maneira na que a visión de Barros se pode entender á luz do concepto de ‘sincronicidade’ de C.G. Jung, o cal intentaba explicar a converxencia de forzas aparentemente casuais ou misteriosas en estruturas de significado harmoniosas. Propoñemos que, ao explorar a cuestión da unidade do universo en clave ontolóxica, Barros supera o marco meramente local e dialoga de paso coa idea de misterio que o cconcepto Jungiano de sincronicidade tamén trataba de explicar.

  • English

    The legend of Faust has continued to capture the imagination of contemporary European writers. The story is often modernized and contextualized within the frame of each writer’s experience. Tomás Barros Pardo (Toledo, 1922 – A Coruña, 1986), of the post-Civil War generation of Galician dramatists, utilized the essential features of the Faust story in his stage work Fausto, Margarida e Aqueloutro (1993). In this work, Barros examines the current ethical dilemma of science handing the power of mass destruction to an immoral government. Like Goethe’s version, Barros’ drama also shows the mysterious capacity of love to reconcile in harmony the material with the metaphysical. The present study focuses on how Barros’ vision corresponds to C. G. Jung’s theory of synchronicity, i.e. the convergence of seemingly random and mysterious forces into harmonious patterns of meaning. It is argued that, in his Faust, Barros transcends local circumstances by inquiring into the ontological questions that dominate world belief-systems regarding the oneness of the universe, mysteries to which Jung’s synchronicity also spoke.