Alexandra Yu. Zinovieva, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of History of Foreign Litera- ture, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov State University of Moscow (MGU), Leninskie Gory, 1, 119991, Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3837-1700
The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella Rat Krespel and T. Mann’s novella Tristan. In addition to the naturally associated similar motifs, the article reveals the creative principles that young Mann adopted from Hoffmann: the combination of dualistic categories in characters and images, which, according to the writer, provides depth and aesthetic value to his material. It demonstrates how R. Wagner’s theme “modernizes” Hoffmann’s pretext in Mann’s eyes, and how individual biographical circumstances fit into a common symbolic system, firmly linking in the process of the creation of Tristan the fin de siècle writer with his Romantic predecessor. It is concluded that the mechanism of “enrichment” of classical material found by Mann allows reproducing techniques found in his own subsequent work, without fear of self-repetition, even encouraging it (as demonstrated by the later Mann’s works closely related to Tristan – the novella Der Tod in Venedig and the novel Der Zauberberg.
Thomas Mann; E.T.A. Hoffmann; “Tristan”; “Rat Krespel”; reception of romantic fiction; fin de siècle.
15.08.2025
10.09.2025
Zinovieva, A. Yu. “Thomas Mann’s Hoffmanniana in the Focus of the Novella Tristan”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 4(70), 2025, pp. 43–56. (In Russ.)
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