Thomas Mann and the Harmonic Profusion. Reading Beyond the Sound of Music
Thomas Mann and the Harmonic Profusion. Reading Beyond the Sound of Music

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the study is an approach to Thomas Mann’s literature in terms of its many-sided musical implications. Some similarities are identified between the Wagnerian pattern and the texture of Mann’s novels: ”the composition with its psychological grounded motifs”, ”the polyphonic structure”, ”the endless melody of Wagner” vs. ”Mann’s musical prose” and so on. The German writer’s acquaintance with the new sociology of music, especially with works by Georg Lukàcs, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, is also closely observed. Not only characters like Leverkühn (Doctor Faustus) or Aschenbach (Death in Venice) illustrate the influence of these theories, but also ”the figure of Adorno was used by the author as the projection of the devil himself ”.

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