Walking the Dog: Paths and Thickets in Thomas Mann's Herr und Hund

Abstract

In Herr und Hund, the dog is both a figure in his own right and a mirror of the master. Bauschan belongs in a humanistic discourse that embraces connectedness with animals; he feeds into yet pleasurably distracts from writing; in his loyalty and affection he confirms the master's personal identity; he embodies attachment to the Bavarian Wahlheimat and provides companionship in an intermediate landscape between city and countryside; initially he confirms his master as pater familias; he enables the sedentary writer to explore manly pursuits. But through a tactic of evasion Herr und Hund also obliquely reflects the war and expresses between the lines a deep shift in mentality away from Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen towards the democratic humanism that Thomas Mann was to embrace in the 1920s. Comparison with Michael Köhlmeier's Idylle mit ertrinkendem Hund serves to draw out the tactic of evasion that approaches traumatic human experience obliquely by way of writing about animals.