Rebecca SC French 602F2576 MA in German Studies - Rhodes ...

although it chronologically follows Mephisto, spans a broader time frame, thus providing a
deeper insight into the developments of the German nation and the heart of its people, its
interests, concerns and attitudes.
In terms of a theoretical framework within which to compare these two novels, I turned to the
theory of intertextuality, which forms the basis of the research presented in Chapter 3. In
undertaking his own version of the Faust legend, Thomas Mann‟s intention was to produce a
novel about a national culture and an epoch, and thus turned to the history, biographies,
philosophies, literature and music of his nation. His reliance on the writings of, for example,
Nietzsche and Adorno, and on the music of Wagner, Beethoven and Schönberg, once brought to
light, enables the reader to more fully appreciate and understand the depth and scope of his
insight into his Volk. Klaus Mann‟s novel, on the other hand, focuses instead on the lives of its
various characters – in almost every character there is to be found a real-life counterpart, which
lends it a certain „juiciness‟ found in most key-novels. Further instances of intertextuality
encountered in Mephisto include the poetry of Baudelaire, the fiction of the Marquis de Sade,
and biographical details of Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch.
The roots of the cultural crisis mentioned earlier can be traced to the collapse, amongst the
European bourgeoisie, of liberal humanism. Chapter 4 examines the role of art within this
humanist ideology and seeks to show why music and theatre, as portrayed in Doktor Faustus and
Mephisto respectively, are ideal art forms to employ as allegorical depictions of a current reality.
Situating the Western aesthetic consciousness within the ancient Greek tradition, I explore
elements of the Greek classical theory to better understand the nature and function of art, in so
far as Thomas Mann would go on to depict this as having changed. Important here is the music
of Richard Wagner, whom I discuss at some length and with reference to Hegel/ Adorno‟s
negative dialectic, in order to demonstrate the accuracy of Thomas Mann‟s portrayal of a
necessary „evolution‟ from high culture to barbarism. Drawing on examples from Mephisto, as
well as from the writings of Erika and Klaus Mann, I also discuss in this chapter the problem of
art production in a totalitarian regime.
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