„[…] Denn mit dem Tode, Dem Genickbruch spielen sie alle.“ Die sprachlose Poetik des Zirkus in Thomas Manns Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull
“Their Basic Pattern Is the ‘Salto Mortale’, For They All Involve the Fatal Risk of a Broken Neck”: The Speechless Poetics of the Circus in Thomas Mann’s Confessions if Felix Krull, Confidence Man

Summary/Abstract: My contribution analyses the affinity for the circus and confidence men based on the chapter in Mann’s novel about visiting a circus. Faced with the mortal risks of the acrobatic performances, Felix Krull falls into deep reflection on anthropology and aesthetics: Are artists, who risk their lives, who demand extreme effort from their bodies, who defy the rules of reason and convention, really normal human beings? Can the sensational performances of the Circus and the morbid feelings of the spectators be conceived of within the terminology of aesthetics? Challenging conventions is the great affinity of circensic art and fraud—but where do the differences lie?

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