A Companion to the Works of Thomas Mann

Sixteen new, carefully focused essays on the prose works of one of the great writers of modernity.

Sixteen new, carefully focused essays on the prose works of one of the great writers of modernity.

Thomas Mann is among the greatest of German prose writers, and was the first German novelist to reach a wide English-speaking readership since Goethe. Novels such asBuddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, andDoktor Faustus attest to his mastery of subtle, distanced irony, while novellas such asDeath in Venice reveal him at the height of his mastery of language. In addition to fresh insights about these best-known works of Mann, this volume treats less-often-discussed works such asJoseph and His Brothers, Lotte in Weimar, andFelix Krull, as well as his political writings and essays. Mann himself was a paradox: his role as family-father was both refuge and façade; his love of Germany was matched by his contempt for its having embraced Hitler. While in exile during the Nazi period, he functioned as the prime representative of the "good" Germany in the fight against fascism, and he has often been remembered this way in English-speaking lands. But a new view of Mann is emerging half a century after his death: a view of him as one of the great writers of a modernity understood as extending into our 21st century. This volume provides sixteen essays by American and European specialists. They demonstrate the relevance of his writings for our time, making particular use of the biographical material that is now available.
Contributors: Ehrhard Bahr, Manfred Dierks, Werner Frizen, Clayton Koelb, Helmut Koopmann, Wolfgang Lederer, Hannelore Mundt, Peter Pütz, Jens Rieckmann, Hans Joachim Sandberg, Egon Schwarz, and Hans Vaget.
Herbert Lehnert is Research Professor, and Eva Wessell is lecturer in Humanities, both at the University of California, Irvine.

Thomas Mann's Beginnings andBuddenbrooks - Herbert Lehnert
Art and Society in Thomas Mann's Early Novellas - Ehrhard Bahr
Love in Society: Thomas Mann's Early Stories - Wolfgang Lederer
"Death in Venice"
"Mein 'Friedrich'--das ist was Anderes": Thomas Mann's Unwritten Novel about Frederick the Great, King of Prussia - Hans-Joachim Sandberg
Magic and Reflections: Thomas Mann'sThe Magic Mountain and His War Essays - Eva Wessell
Thomas Mann's Autobiographical Stories - Dr. Helmut Koopmann
Joseph and His Brothers - Peter Puetz
Lotte in Weimar - Werner Frizen
Thomas Mann's Late Politics - Dr. Manfred Dierks
"German" Music and German Catastrophe: A Re-Reading ofDoktor Faustus - Hans Rudolf Vaget
The Gaze of Love, Longing, and Desire in Thomas Mann's "The Transposed Heads" and "The Black Swan" - Jens Rieckmann
Felix Krull - Egon Schwarz
Female Identities and Autobiographical Impulses in Thomas Mann's Work - Hannelore Mundt
Betrayed or Not Betrayed: A Testament? - Herbert Lehnert
Thomas Mann's Comedies - Herbert Lehnert