Thomas Mann's <I>Doctor Faustus</I> - A Novel at the Margin of Modernism (Hardcover, 1st ed)

These essays, written by eminent German and American scholars, assess the contemporary position of Thomas Mann research during a paradigm change in our historical consciousness. The question is whether Mann's Doctor Faustus, a novel with a highly developed structure, is also a modern, "open" novel, in the sense that it represents a fictional world that is incomplete and requires participation by the reader. Other essays grapple with the question of Mann's modernism from a variety of viewpoints: Helmut Koopmann from the German historical perspective, Manfred Dierks from a psychoanalytical, while Ehrhard Bahr works with parallels in Adorno's (later) theory of modern art. John Fetzer analyzes Romantic elements in the novel, Brigitte Prutti and Egon Schwarz address questions of "datedness" in Doctor Faustus and Hannelore Mundt argues against the common notion that Mann's novel constitutes the end of a line in German literature after World War II. In addition to the essays, there are responses to them that add new viewpoints to the papers they supplement. This fascinating volume presents Thomas Mann research in a state of movement and offers new interpretations of a landmark of modern fiction.