| The dissertation set for itself two distinct goals. First, it set out to reconstruct a specifically Wilhelminian literary discourse, one that would prove dominant for the greater part of the historical period known as the Wilhelminian era (1870/71-1918). As the dominant discourse, it was able in effect to set limits on how literature and the writer could be "properly" defined, limits which few writers even recognized, much less thought to challenge. Fundamental to this discourse was the concept of the writer as elemental genius (a figure German usage describes as the "Dichter" in order to differentiate him from the mere writer, the "Schriftsteller"). Equally fundamental was a strict hierarchy of the various genres, where the drama was proclaimed the highest form, followed by the lyric or epic poem and with the novel a distant third. In order to demonstrate this discourse's dominance, we analysed several distinct literary movements of the period (Naturalism, Symbolism, Impressionism) and showed how, as different as they might be in other respects, they nevertheless were one in glorifying the figure of the "Dichter" and denigrating the novel.The second goal of the dissertation was to present the young Thomas Mann as a writer not only aware of the limits of the dominant Wilhelminian literary discourse, but also committed to breaking down these limits and ushering in a new literary program. In this, the dissertation offers a new interpretation of the young Thomas Mann, one which rejects traditional portraits of the writer as an apolitical aesthete, distant from the various literary and social movements of his time. Working chronologically through both Mann's fictional and non-fictional writings from 1894-1914, from "Gefallen" to Buddenbrooks to "Tonio Kroger" to "Der Tod in Venedig", we demonstrate how Mann built into his texts criticisms of the various literary movements and programs of his time, criticisms which were meant to subvert the dominant literary discourse. In this, Mann hoped to bring a new stature to both the figure of the "Schriftsteller" and to the novel as genre. |
