Expression and Adorno's Avant‐Garde: The Composer in Doktor Faustus

Abstract

Scholars have demonstrated a renewed interest in the relation between Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus and Theodor W Adorno's philosophical writings. However, the question of expression, dominant both in Mann's novel and Adorno's philosophy of music, remains unexplored. This article argues that Mann's text articulates a different theory of expression than Adorno espouses. Despite Mann's appropriation of many of Adorno's modern ideas about the aesthetics of music, he maintains a traditional stance. While Adorno denies that composers make any meaningful subjective contributions to compositions, the two protagonists of Doktor Faustus emphasize this creative force. This basic disagreement about artistic expression is most conspicuous with regard to Schönberg's method of twelve‐tone composition. Referring to Schönberg's theoretical works, I show that the theory of expression formulated in Doktor Faustus has more in common with Schönberg's ideas than with Adorno's.