Introduction

Summary

IN THIS BOOK I ATTEMPT TO PROVIDE a clear explanation of what I think Mann had in mind in writing Doktor Faustus. The following study is the result of having, so to speak, tipped the kaleidoscope in looking at the novel. I have disregarded the accepted assumptions of what the novel is about, on the grounds that they do not lead to an intelligible interpretation of the text, and posited new assumptions. The book originated in a suspicion, which soon developed into the conviction, that Doktor Faustus is an autobiographical novel. In their readings of the novel most critics have largely misunderstood or ignored the material underlying Doktor Faustus: the historical setting, Mann's theory of the intellectual position underlying the development of fascism, and the events surrounding Mann's personal life at the time the story is set. As a result they have developed elaborate analyses that, quite simply, fail to explain the novel. Of course, history and political theory are just as controversial as literary interpretation, and historical events are equally open to a variety of interpretations. However, the particular historical and political interpretation presented in the novel concerning the rise of intellectual fascism — as distinct from applied fascism — reflects, as I understand it, the same interpretation of the rise of totalitarianism found elsewhere in Mann's work, particularly in Die Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, a series of essays on politics, published in 1918. The theory presented there has a large following and, as such, it is not new or peculiar to Mann.