Alfred Döblin und Thomas Mann: Eine wechselvolle literarische Beziehung. (Epistemata: Reihe Literaturwissenschaft, 610) by Oliver Bernhardt

Abstract

MLR, 104.2, 2009 597 as independent texts thatprofile the intriguing narrator figuremore than Seldwyla itself.Both this essay and Yomb Mays discussion of several of the novellas for their epoch-affiliation ('Paradigma des burgerlichen Realismus') offerwelcome and authoritative introductions to the cycle as awhole. Hahn's second contribution, 'Gretchenfrage und Ehekonflikt im Verlorenen La chen\ provides a cogent socio-historical contextualization of Switzerland in the mid-nineteenth century, in order to consider the final novella of the cycle as testi mony to Feuerbach's philosophy ofmaterialism. The remaining essays are also analyses of individual novellas. Catherine Watts and Riidiger Gorner interpret 'Kleidermachen Leute' for twovery different reader types: Watts's Tntertextual Explorations' enumerating for the undergraduate reader the novellistic aspects of this narrative (quoting in English translation), and Gorner's encyclopedic 'Ontologie des Anscheins' tracing the metaphor of disguise from Homer to W. G. Sebald. JuliaAugart's contribution, 'ZurAustauschbarkeit von Identitat,Geschlecht und Gefuhl imMedium Brief, deals with the novella of literarypersiflage, 'Die miss brauchten Liebesbriefe\ addressing the question of genre and the chain of duplicity in the triangular correspondence. Deborah Holmes's 'Keller's Pedagogy inPractice' prudently reassesses theviews of thenon-authoritarian pegadogic reformerEugenie Schwarzwald, who believed thatKeller's novellas (especially 'Frau Regel Amrain') represented a significant contribution tomodern female emancipation. Diligently presented and introduced, and containing an informative select bib liography and index, this interdisciplinary volume includes something of value and interest for a wide range of students and critics, and deserves a place on the shelves of any academic library. University College Dublin Siobhan Donovan Alfred Doblin und Thomas Mann: Eine wechselvolle literarische Beziehung. By Oliver Bernhardt. (Epistemata: Reihe Literaturwissenschaft, 610) Wurz burg: Konigshausen & Neumann. 2007. 218 pp. 29.80. ISBN 978-3-8260 3669-9. In this lucid and well-informed study,Oliver Bernhardt argues against theview that Alfred Doblin and Thomas Mann produced two radically opposed bodies ofwork. He criticizesWulf Koepke's description of the twowriters as Tntimfeinde\ calling it pauschal'?a sweeping generalization. It iswell known, of course, thatmost of the hostility was on Doblin's side, and thatMann's attitude toDoblin tended to be one of noblesse oblige. Bernhardt points out that early relations between the twomen were ambivalent, but not overtly hostile: in a letterof 1919 Doblin even describes his enthusiastic appreciation ofMann's Gesangvom Kindchen. Minutes of themeetings of the Sektion furDichtkunst der Preufiischen Akademie der Kiinste from 1928-29 show that the twomen never contradicted each other in this arena, and often supported each other's views. This working relationship began to dete riorate when Mann was awarded theNobel Prize forBuddenbrooks inNovember 598 Reviews 1929, one month after the publication of Berlin Alexanderplatz. Doblin was never able to forgiveMann for this triumph, and Bernhardt remarks that ifonly Doblin had followed Schiller's advice from thepoem 'Das Gliick' regarding his relationship with Goethe: 'Ziirne dem Glucklichen nicht\ then the storymight have been very different. The intellectual common ground was there: Bernhardt demonstrates in terestingparallels between Doblin's andManns ambivalent receptions ofNietzsche, although he notes that,unlike Doblin, Mann was fascinated byNietzsche's person as well as by his philosophy. The most original part of thisbook isChapter 6, inwhich Bernhardt undertakes detailed comparisons between themajor works, and succeeds in finding some im portant affinities. In the case ofDer Zauberberg and Berlin Alexanderplatz he has found a structural similarity: both novels are arguably Bildungsromane inwhich the educational process isdivided into three stages. (According to Walter Benjamin, Berlin Alexanderplatz represents a limit case of theBildungsroman.) Next, Bernhardt argues thatmyth is used similarly in both Babylonische Wandrung and Joseph und seine BriXder inorder topoint theway to a philosophically serene tHeiterkeit\This is not entirely accurate: both Doblin's Konrad and Mann's Joseph learn humility, but, unlike Konrad, Joseph also learns political engagement. And whereas Doblin uses myth to reveal the futilityofhuman endeavour, Mann's model ofmyth?founded on Bachofen aswell as on Schopenhauer?does not exclude the possibility of historical progress. The most convincing of Bernhardt's parallels is thatbetween November 1918 and Doktor Faustus. Both novels attempt to explain the genesis ofNational Socialism, the formerproceeding historically and politically, and the latterbymeans of psycho logy and aesthetics. Bernhardt shows that these two novels...