Thomas Mann and Friedrich Nietzsche : : Eroticism, Death, Music, and Laughter / / edited byCaroline Joan (Kay) S. Picart.

• Superior document: Value Inquiry Book Series ; 85
• TeilnehmendeR: Picart, Caroline Joan (Kay) S.,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : BRILL,, 1999.
• Year of Publication: 1999
• Language: English
• Series: Value Inquiry Book Series ; 85.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (181 pages)
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Other title: Eroticism, Death, Music, and Laughter
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 9004494944
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: edited byCaroline Joan (Kay) S. Picart.

Traditional interpretations of Thomas Mann's relation to Nietzsche's writings plot out a simple relation of earlier adulation and later rejection. The book argues that Mann's disavowal of Nietzsche's influence was, in the words of T.J. Reed, a necessary political act when the repudiation of Nietzsche's more hysterical doctrines required such a response. Using a genealogical method, the book traces how Mann labors ambivalently under the shadow of Nietzsche's writings on his own political artistry through a detailed analysis of Mann's Death in Venice, Dr. Faustus, the Joseph tetralogy, and Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man. Using the recurring Nietzschean themes of eroticism, death, music, and laughter as a guide, it arrives at a rough picture of how Mann both takes up and discontinues Nietzsche's poetic heritage. The book derives the vision of the interrelationships binding these four leitmotiv elements from Dürer's magic square as depicted in Melancholia I. The link with Dürer is far from arbitrary because Mann directly aligned Nietzschean insight with Dürer's world of passion, sympathy with suffering, the macabre stench of rotting flesh, and Faustian melancholy.