Svět Literatury (Oct 2015)

Nedostatečnost ve světle měšťanské epochy: Thomas Mann a Hugo von Hofmannsthal // Inadequacy in the light of the bourgeois age — Thomas Mann and Hugo von Hofmannsthal

  • Štěpán Sirovátka

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 52
pp. 32 – 36

Abstract

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The paper aims to compare two authors of the Fin-de-Siècle from the German-speaking area (Thomas Mann and Hugo von Hofmannsthal) and tries to offer a specific “German” interpretation of contemporary phenomena like dandyism or estheticism. For the German area, Mann’s concept of the bourgeoisie as a spiritual form of life appears to be relevant. It is the idea of the middle way denying any sort of excess and connected with moral obligation. Therefore, German “decadence” is lacking an explicit anti-social gesture (dandyism) and is merely the expression of the process of “Entbürgerlichung”.

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