Bluebeard's Chamber
Guilt and Confession in Thomas Mann
Published on 12. February 2019
160 pages
978-1-78663-576-1 (ISBN)
Description
Over the last twenty years, critical discussion of Thomas Mann has highlighted the role of his homosexuality for his creative work. This not only is presented as a dynamic underlying Mann's creative work, but also is the supposed reason for the theme of guilt and redemption that grew ever stronger in Mann's fiction.
Michael Maar mounts a devastating forensic challenge to this consensus: Mann was remarkably open about his sexual orientation, which he saw as no reason for guilt. But sexuality in Mann's work is inextricably bound up with an eruption of violence. Maar pursues this trail through Mann's writings and traces its origins back to Mann's second visit to Italy, during which the Devil appeared to him in Palestrina. Something happened to the twenty-one-year-old Thomas Mann in Naples that marked him for life with a burdensome sense of guilt...but what exactly was it?
Michael Maar mounts a devastating forensic challenge to this consensus: Mann was remarkably open about his sexual orientation, which he saw as no reason for guilt. But sexuality in Mann's work is inextricably bound up with an eruption of violence. Maar pursues this trail through Mann's writings and traces its origins back to Mann's second visit to Italy, during which the Devil appeared to him in Palestrina. Something happened to the twenty-one-year-old Thomas Mann in Naples that marked him for life with a burdensome sense of guilt...but what exactly was it?
More details
Edition
Ebook UK & RoW
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Reflowable
ISBN-13
978-1-78663-576-1 (9781786635761)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2019
Verso Books
€17.50
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Michael Maar is one of Germany's leading literary critics. Formerly a visiting professor at Stanford University, he is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and the German Academy for Language and Literature.
Content
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Chapter One: Room with Dead Cat
- Chapter Two: 'Voluptuousness and Hot Guilt'
- Chapter Three: Credemi
- Afterword: Giving the Devil His Due
- Acknowledgements
- Translator's Note
- Extract from The German Republic
- Notes
