A Strict Arrangement: Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus, and the Kretzschmar Lectures

A.M.W. Kager

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

An important position within the “Themen-Gewebe” that is Doktor Faustus is occupied by the Kretzschmar lectures, narrated by Serenus Zeitblom from his remarkably accurate memory. The lectures constitute the most forceful descriptions of music in the novel. Because of Kretzschmar’s manner of enthusiastically mimicking with his mouth what his hands are playing, it becomes very easy to follow the music while reading the text. The philosophical and historical music issues that Kretzschmar discusses in his lectures trigger long debates between Adrian and Serenus, which Thomas Mann often adopted almost literally from outside sources. There are echoes from the Kretzschmar lectures throughout Doktor Faustus, and the lectures foreshadow several other parts of the novel. Although many of Mann’s works are to some degree “musical,” his ambitions to blend words and music are nowhere carried as far as in Doktor Faustus.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEssays on Music and Language in Modernist Literature
Subtitle of host publicationMusical Modernism
EditorsKatherine O'Callaghan
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter6
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9781138285651
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Publication series

NameRoutledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature

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