DER TEUFEL DES DOKTOR FAUSTUS: ZUR DEUTUNG DES BÖSEN IM FAUST-ROMAN VON THOMAS MANN

Abstract

<p>This thesis analyses Thomas Mann's concept of evil, in his novel Doktor Faustus, as opposed to the traditional theological concept. According to Thomas Mann, evil is a loss of humanity evolving in the course of history. He portrays German Nazism as based of inward, speculative tendencies of the German mind which can already be found in the work of Germany's reformer Martin Luther. The evolution of abstract thought and inward culture towards a new barbarism is traced through four centuries of German history. For Thomas Mann, Protestant theology, with its mystic tendencies, played a decisive part in this development.</p> <p>As an artist effected by the crisis of culture, Thomas Mann describes how evil became the instrument of overcoming its stagnation. Thomas Mann's epic technique reveals the omnipresence as well as the genesis of evil in history. Adrian Leverkühn, the central figure of the novel, becomes the all-inclusive paradigm; the modern Faustus, who in order to find God, makes a pact with the devil.</p> <p>Finally, Thomas Manns humanistic principles and their religious foundations are developed. His call for a 'religiously tinted humanism' to prevent future isolation and alienation is shown as consistently valid.</p>