Being and Meaning in Thomas Mann's Joseph Novels PDF Download

Author: Charlotte Nolte
Publisher: MHRA
ISBN: 9780901286635
Category : Mythology in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
The premise of this book is that the theme of being and meaning in Thomas Mann's novel tetralogy Joseph und seine Bruder unites the novel's stylistic and thematic structure. The author demonstrates persuasively how these leading ideas are worked out in detail, pervading plot-structure, symbolism, characterization and narration. Through a subtle series of analyses - of the concepts of time and identity underlying the novel, its image-patterns, the changing psychology of its characters, above all Joseph's process of individuation and the narrator's changing behaviour - patterns of overlap and discrepancy between being and meaning are brought out in such a way as to unite many parts of the novel into an overall coherent structure of meaning. The analysis makes use of Jungian theory to explain the mythical dimension and the emergence of consciousness from it. Jungian concepts are applied deftly and offer real insights into the early psychology of myth and its late psychologizing by mythologists, as presented in the novels. There is much fresh thinking here to stimulate a fuller understanding and enjoyment of Mann's representing of the biblical Joseph story.

Author: Thomas Mann
Publisher: Vintage Classics
ISBN: 9780749386771
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 1207

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Book Description
THE BOOK: As Germany dissolved into the nightmare of Nazism, Thomas Mann was at work on this epic recasting of the the great Bible story. Joseph, his brothers and his father Jacob, are at the prototypes of all humanity and their story is the story of life itself. Mann has taken one of the great simple chronicles of literature and filled it with psychological scope and range: its men and women are not remote figures in the Book of Genesis, but founders of states in a fresh, realisic world akin to our own .

Author: Terry R. Wright
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317030761
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book considers a range of twentieth-century novelists who practise a creative mode of reading the Bible, exploring aspects of the Book of Genesis which more conventional biblical criticism sometimes ignores. Each chapter considers some of the interpretive challenges of the relevant story in Genesis, especially those noted by rabbinic midrash, which serves as a model for such creative rewriting of the biblical text. All the novelists considered, from Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Thomas Mann to Jeanette Winterson, Anita Diamant and Jenny Diski, are shown to have been aware of the midrashic tradition and in some cases to have incorporated significant elements from it into their own writing. The questions these modern and postmodern writers ask of the Bible, however, go beyond those permitted by the rabbis and by other believing interpretive communities. Each chapter therefore attempts to chart intertextually where the writers are coming from, what principles govern their mode of reading and rewriting Genesis, and what conclusions can be drawn about the ways in which it remains possible to relate to the Bible.

Author: Hannelore Mundt
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 9781570035371
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Understanding Thomas Mann offers a comprehensive guide to the novels, short stories, novellas, and nonfiction of one of the most renowned and prolific German writers. In close readings, Hannelore Mundt illustrates how Mann's masterly prose captures both his time and the complexities of human existence with a unique blend of humor, compassion, irony, and ambiguity.

Author: Jon Stewart
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351875264
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists worldwide who have been attracted to his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables, and allegories. The goal of the present volume is to document this influence in different language groups and traditions. Tome I explores Kierkegaard’s influence on literature and art in the Germanophone world. He was an important source of inspiration for German writers such as Theodor Fontane, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Alfred Andersch, and Martin Walser. Kierkegaard’s influence was particularly strong in Austria during the generation of modernist authors such as Rudolf Kassner, Karl Kraus, Robert Musil, and Hermann Broch. Due presumably in part to the German translations of Kierkegaard in the Austrian cultural journal Der Brenner, Kierkegaard continued to be used by later figures such as the novelist and playwright, Thomas Bernhard. His thought was also appropriated in Switzerland through the works of Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The famous Czech author Franz Kafka identified personally with Kierkegaard’s love story with Regine Olsen and made use of his reflections on this and other topics.

Author: Ritchie Robertson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139826077
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Key dimensions of Thomas Mann's writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays. In addition to introductory chapters on all the main works of fiction, the essays and diaries, there are four chapters examining Mann's oeuvre in relation to major themes. These thematic explorations include his position as a realistic writer concerned with the history of his own times and as a commentator on German and American politics; his controversial reputation as an intellectual novelist; the literary techniques that enabled his challenging fictions to appeal to a wide audience; and the homosexual subtext running through his fiction and diaries. A final chapter looks at the pitfalls of translating Mann into English. The essays are well supported by supplementary material including a chronology of the period and detailed guides to further reading. Altogether the volume provides an invaluable resource for scholars and students.

Author: Paul Bishop
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415205573
Category : Jungian psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This is a unique collection of the most important essays on Jung and analytical psychology over the past two decades. The essays place Jung, the man and his work, in three important contexts: historical, literary and intellectual.

Author: Thomas Mann
Publisher: Everyman's Library
ISBN: 1400040019
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1538

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Book Description
This remarkable new translation of the Nobel Prize-winner’s great masterpiece is a major literary event. Thomas Mann regarded his monumental retelling of the biblical story of Joseph as his magnum opus. He conceived of the four parts–The Stories of Jacob, Young Joseph, Joseph in Egypt, and Joseph the Provider–as a unified narrative, a “mythological novel” of Joseph’s fall into slavery and his rise to be lord over Egypt. Deploying lavish, persuasive detail, Mann conjures for us the world of patriarchs and pharaohs, the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, and the universal force of human love in all its beauty, desperation, absurdity, and pain. The result is a brilliant amalgam of humor, emotion, psychological insight, and epic grandeur. Now the award-winning translator John E. Woods gives us a definitive new English version of Joseph and His Brothers that is worthy of Mann’s achievement, revealing the novel’s exuberant polyphony of ancient and modern voices, a rich music that is by turns elegant, coarse, and sublime.

Author: Jim Booth
Publisher: Watchmaker Publishing
ISBN: 9780972178600
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
"Daniel Randolph Deal is a Southern aristocrat, having the required bloodline, but little of the nobility. A man resistant to the folly of ethics, he prefers a selective, self-indulgent morality. He is a confessed hedonist, albeit responsibly so."--Back cover

Author: Thomas Mann
Publisher: e-artnow
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Royal Highness takes place around the turn of the 20th century in the fictional German state of Grimmburg, which despite the efforts of Minister Trümmerhauff, Dr. Krippenreuther and Knobelsdorff is characterized by economic decline and high public debt. Agriculture is underdeveloped, mines are exhausted, the railroad is unprofitable, the university provincial. The income from the healing Ditlinden spring is limited, the castles scattered across the country lapse. The symbol of all this is a rose bush in the courtyard of the old castle, the beautiful flowers of which smell like mold. The novel is a sharp satire of a dying monarchy with a wonderful portrayal of a loveless childhood.