Understanding Thomas Mann (review)

Understanding Thomas Mann is Hannelore Mundt's second book on Mann, but it is very different in scope and intended readership from her first book, Doktor Faustus und die Folgen (1989), an examination of the impact of one particular novel on postwar German literature. By contrast, Understanding Thomas Mann provides an accessible yet nuanced introduction to Mann's entire oeuvre, spanning six decades – from 1884 to his death in 1955. An introductory study like this one cannot and should not provide in-depth analyses of individual works nor detailed discussion of the research on Mann's works. Yet Mundt's commentaries reflect a comprehensive knowledge of the vast secondary literature on Mann as well as a deep appreciation for the subtleties and ambiguities of Mann's writings.

Mundt's study appeared in the University of South Carolina Press series "Understanding Modern European and Latin American Literature." According to the series editor, James N. Hardin, it is the goal of the series to increase "knowledge and understanding of European and Latin American cultures," especially among students and the general reader, by providing information on the historical setting as well as the intellectual traditions – in short by contextualizing individual authors and their works. Mundt does more than justice to this call. She looks at Mann's works through the lens of twentieth-century German and European intellectual history and his biography – based on his diaries, letters, and other sources. This biographical approach makes for a lively reading, yet Mundt is very aware of the risks of biographical reductionism, that is, of explaining an author's creative writings through his or her "life." In other words, Mundt highlights the interconnectedness between life and work without losing sight of the multiple dimensions and meanings of Mann's works, for example his multifaceted portrayal of artistic individualism in the novel Doctor Faustus and in other works.

The book consists of twelve chapters, including an informative introduction and eleven chapters dealing with individual works or groups of works in roughly chronological order, and it concludes with a bibliography and an index. The bibliography is divided into three sections: selected lists of Mann's works in German and in English translation and a list of selected secondary literature that includes brief annotations on some entries. Mundt interweaves her commentaries with summaries of individual works, a feature that is helpful for the newcomer and initiated reader alike. Although her emphasis is on Mann's biography and the texts themselves, she also considers major cultural and philosophical influences (not only the trio Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Wagner, but also lesser-known figures such as the Austrian literary critic Hermann Bahr) and literary models (well established ones like Goethe's Faust and lesser known ones like Gabriele Reuter's novel Aus guter Familie). Furthermore, Mundt points to multiple aspects of Mann's works that pertain to current issues and problems, such as the tension between individualism and social conventions.

It adds to the user-friendliness of this book that each chapter stands on its own and can easily be read individually. Yet, read in its entirety, the book provides a good overview of both the changing themes in Mann's work and of topics recurring throughout his works. For example, Mundt illustrates how Mann's struggle with his own repressed homosexual desires shapes – though often camouflaged as heterosexual attraction – many of his works. While this topic remains a constant throughout his works, Mundt also shows how, in Mann's later works, these personal issues are being increasingly placed within larger social and political frameworks.

Although Mundt's overall approach is highly appreciative of Mann's writings, she does not shy away from pointing out some of the problematic aspects of his political and social views, for example Mann's embrace of antidemocratic, elitist views in the early 1920s. Her critical approach to his political essays (chapter 7) is all the more convincing as she extends her ability to tease out textual ambiguities and conceptual contradictions in Mann's fictional...