W poszukiwaniu ucznia czarnoksiężnika: między Lukianem a Waltem Disneyem

• Authors: Damian Kalitan

Title variants

EN

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

Abstracts

EN

At first glance, Jon Turteltaub’s movie entitled The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010) seems to have no connections whatsoever with Greco-Roman antiquity. To find any hidden connections, we have to go back to 1797, when Johann Wolfgang Goethe published his famous ballad Der Zauberlehrling. Almost a century later, this work has inspired French composer Paul Dukas to write his masterpiece, the symphonic scherzo L’apprenti sorcier. Dukas’ music became the leitmotif of two Walt Disney movies: Fantasia (1940) and Fantasia 2000 (1999). This is where we trace the ancient roots of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice story. In 1789, a good friend of Goethe, Christopher Martin Wieland, is reported to have published the first German translation of Lucian of Samosata’s (120-180 AD) complete 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 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 the modern film adaptations. The original Lucian’s tale, rewritten by Goethe, has proven very influential and prolific. The so-called “sorcerer’s apprentice syndrome” can be found at the root of many fantastic stories in which a human being could not control his creation (i.e. a robot) which eventually would turn against its maker. The main focus in this paper is on the evolution of the young apprentice’s story and its cinematographic life.

Keywords

EN

Lucian; Sorcerer; Apprentice; reception; W. Disney; P. Dukas; film; Fantasia

• Publisher: Fundacja Pro Scientia Publica
• Journal: Ogrody Nauk i Sztuk
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 2

Dates

published

2012

Contributors

author

Damian Kalitan

Identifiers

ISSN

2084-1426