Artificial I's

The Self as Artwork in Ovid, Kierkegaard, and Thomas Mann

von Eric Downing

244 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

This study explores three works in which the protagonist undertakes to fashion a literary artwork out of himself: Ovid's »Ars Amatoria«, Kierkegaard's »Diary of the Seducer«, and Thomas Mann's »Felix Krull«. For each work, particular attention is paid to the self-conscious interplay between the author's project of book-making and the character's project of self-making, as well as to the effect of changing notions of self-identity on the protagonist's attempt at life as literature. For »Felix Krull«, this includes a sustained analysis of Mann's incorporation and problematization of various Nietzschean models of aesthestics, reality, and self-identity. In Ovid and Kierkegaard, this study also considers a related project, the attempt to fashion a literary artwork out of another, namely out of a woman.

• Reihe: Studien zur deutschen Literatur
• Themen: Biographie, Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft Geschichte und Kritik Literaturwissenschaft, allgemein 1900 bis 2000
• ISBN: 9783484181274
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 15.09.1993
• Größe: 23 x 15.5 cm
• Verlag: De Gruyter