FACULTY OF ARTS

Volume J 1958 Number 1..

The Time Levels in Thomas Mann's Joseph the Provider

BY K. LEOPOLD, M.A., Ph.D. Department of German University of Queensland

'fHE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND PRESS BRISBANE 10th OCTOBER, 1958, Registered at the G. P. O. for transmi.r.rion by Post as a Book

Printed by SIMPSON HALLIGAN & CO. PTY. LTD. Wickham Street, Valley, Brisbane

Text-Linotype Caslon The Time Levels in Thomas Mann's Joseph the Provider

by K. LEOPOLD

The first three novels of Thomas Mann's tetralogy Joseph and his Brethren appeared in 1933, 1934 and 1936 respectively. The fourth novel, Joseph the Provider, did not appear until 1943. During the seven years that elapsed between the publication of the third and fourth novels Mann published two major works that had no direct connection with the Joseph story: the novel Lotte in Weimar and the "Indian legend" The TranslJosed Heads. These circumstances suggest either that Joseph the Provider caused Mann considerably more difficulty than the other novels of the tetralogy or that the author felt compelled to devote particular care to this final novel in which the hero's maturity and period of greatest glory are represented. In either case the student of the Joseph novels is obviously justified in paying special attention to Joseph the Provider, and a careful study of the text does indeed reveal that this novel is particularly rich in ideas, is in many respects the key novel of the four. The striking and distinguishing feature of Joseph the Provider is that it points to the future and completes Mann's representation of the formation of myth by showing this future through the present of the novel.

In order to understand fully the nature and significance of this future reference of .1oseph the Provider it is necessary to consider briefly some of the basic ideas of the tetralogy. The idea that is indispensable to an understanding of the work as a whole is the concept of "gelebte vita"', of relived life. In primitive societies in particular the individual does not seek to be a unique individual: he seeks to fit into an existing pattern, to live a life that has been lived before. This process may go beyond imitation of a pattern of life to identification with a figure in the pattern. Mann himself has an illuminating comment on this aspect of primitive life: "The Ego of antiquity and its consciousness of itself was different from our own, less exclusive, less sharply defined. It was, as it were, open behind: it received much from the past and by repeating it gave it presentness again. The Spanish scholar Ortega y Gasset puts it that the man of antiquity, before he did anything, took a step backwards, like the buIl­ fighter who leaps back to deliver the mortal thrust. He searched into the past for a pattern into which he might slip as into a diving-bell, and being thus at once disguised and protected might rush upon his present problem. Thus his life was in a sense a reanimation, an archaizing attitude. But it is just this life as reanimation that is the life as myth."2

1 The term is used by Mann throughout the essay Fre'ud and the Future. He does not state that the term originates with Freud. 2 In Freud and the Future (Adel des Geistes, p. 181). 3 With this concept of "gclebre vita" constantly in the foreground, l\!lann proceeds to show the formation and development of myth through rhe lives of the patriarchs. What becomes in the noveb narrative, character, incident, image and symbol may he stated in intellectual terms as follows:

At some prehistoric period the human subconscious found expression in the creation of myths, many of which were based in one form or another on the image of the father. At a later but still prehistoric period a number of these myths assumed within one tribe (Israel) a highly spiritual quality when-again after the image of the father--an omniscient, omnipotent and completely spiritual god was created. But even in this new age of monotheisri1 imitation of and identification with earlier patterns of life and earlier mythic figures continued, for no age creates something entirely new and yet the individuality of each age adds something new to basic, traditional patterns. There was also a question of profit and loss in the new monotheism: Israel had evolved the highest god, but at the same time the myth of this tribe had lost the vividness and concreteness that went with the body of the god.

There was in the tribe of Israel a certain Jacob who was well versed in the myths of his own and other tribes, who sought always to act in accordance with established mythic patterns and who yet in his actions and his stories unconsciously contributed to the development of these patterns. In Jacob's son, Joseph, a new power had emerged: like his father, Joseph lived in the myth, but he possessed for the first time the consciousne.r.r of living in the myth. He was the first man to know that his actions were largely determined by what had gone before and that these same actions were hd~.ing to establish a slightly different pattern for those who would come aftci him. He was one whose consciousness embraced past, present and future. Yet despite, or possibly because of, his firm roots in the past it was Jacob rather than Joseph who foresaw and foretold the future. Aware of the lack of vividness and concreteness in the myth of Israel, Jacob began to prophesy an incarnation of the purely spiritual god. As time went by, this belief in an incarnation developed and became one of the central beliefs of Israel. As it developed it borrowed many traits from "heathen" myths such as that of Tammuz and also traits from the life of Joseph himself. Prophets proclaimed that the time of the incarnation of the god was at hand, and at last a man emerged who was so imbued with tradition and with a Messianic sense of self that he regarded himself as the incarnation of the god and was widely accepted as such. His life fashioned itself after a mythic pattern that had begun somewhere in the bottomless well of the past and had developed through Tammuz, Joseph, Moses, the prophets and others. After his death the myth-creating elements in man fitted his life even more completely into the established mythic pattern.

Here we have then, in brief and over-simplified form, the basic conception of mythic development from which the novels arise. Naturally no attempt is made by the author to represent directly the whole of this development. The period ~f time directly represented in the four novels is only some thirty years of the life of Joseph. But with these thirty years in the foreground as present the author succeeds in conjuring up both past and future. It is the very opposite of closed form that Mann achieves here. The work 1n1lJt not be self-contained: it must point backward and forward in order to realize the author's intention. One may say t,hat the joseph novels consist of time-strata. One stratum, reprl:senting thirty years of Joseph's life, is in the centre and immediately before the eyes of the rl:ader. Directly beneath this central layer is an earlier, less tangible stratum that presl:nts the development of monotheism from its cme'rgencl: to thl: timl: of Jacob and j oscph. Beneath this stratum is a third, only faintly p(~rccptible stratum covering the earliest, most primitive times. Above thc ccntrallayer representing joseph's life is yet another, corresponding in clarity and tangibility to the layer immediately beneath the central one and representing the development of the Hebraic myth from Joseph to Christ. Above this stratum, corresponding in tangibility to the bottommost stratum, is modern Christian civilization.

It is impossible for the author who seeks to represent the formation of myth to show this process of formation in a single time-stratum that embraces only the life-span of an individual, for the essence of myth is repetition and development of an established pattern over centuries or even millennia. Either, the author must adopt the unity-destroying device of telling separate stories from different ages that reveal the same mythical pattern or else he must proceed as J\![ann docs here and, starting from a central time-stratum, conjure up past and future through flash-back, foreshadowing, hint, suggestion, allusion, and presupposition of knowledge on the part of the reader. The reader of Mann's novels must be familiar with the primitive stages of the myth (and Mann himself helps to ensure this familiarity by the first novel of the tetralogy, The Stories of Jacob); he must know intimately those who are chosen to build on the earlier myth in the central time-stratum (this Mann ensures with the foreground subject-matter of the last three novels); and in addition he must kno'w. well the later development of the myth, for only in this way can the myth­ creating activity of those in the cent~'aj time-stratum become meaningful.

Generally speaking, it is The Sturin of Jacob that is concerned with the , two time-strata that lie beneath the present of the novel. Y o'ung Jo.reph and Jo.reph in Egypt are primarily representations of this present. Joseph the Provider is the novel that embraces the two time-strata lying above the present of the novel. Naturally this is true only in general terms: all of the novels have past and future references. But the direction of Joseph the Provider towards the future is unmistakable.

Before we analyse more closely this future reference of Jo.reph the Prov·ider, it is necessary to discuss briefly one further aspect of the tetralogy as a whole. We said above that Joseph is the first to possess full consciousness of living in the myth. Such a consciousness involves more than the subjective realization of one's own role in the myth: it involves the realization that at bottom all life shows the same imitative and creative traits as one's own life, the realization that spiritual life is eternally imitation and creation, repetition and rebirth-just as Mann's own telling of the Joseph story is repetition of something age-old and yet at the same time creation and rebirth. Such consciousness brings with it a sense of the typical, of the eternal-human, an awareness of permanency amidst all transcience, of eternal recurrence of the same amidst the multiplicity of forms. But these are obviously basic elements of the outlook on life of the elder Goethe, whom Mann at this stage sees as his own "mythic" model after the Romantic patterns of his youth. Thus J()s~ph assumes characteristics of an eternal type-the mythically oriented artist such as we know in the elder Goethe and in Thomas Mann himself. 5 These characteristics of the mythically oriented artist do not belong to Joseph from the very beginning. Certainly his consciousness of his role in the myth seems to be with him from his childhood, but, as with Goethe and Mann, there is a long development before he attains to full maturity. Young Joseph abandons himself to vain dreams, gives free rein to his youthful egocentricity, must twice be cast into the pit and make the acquaintance of the underworld of death before he is ready to become govcrnor of the land of Egypt and confirm in his person and by his actions that he is blessed with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under. It is this final stage of full maturity, of inner equilibrium, of harmony of flesh and spirit that is represented in Joseph the Provider.

Having discussed some of the basic ideas of the tetralogy as a whole, we can turn now to Joseph the Prov·ider in particular and to our earlier statement that it is this novel that conjures up the two time-strata that lie above the central stratum of Joseph's life: the period from Joseph to Christ, and modern Christian civilization. The futurc reference of Joseph the Provider points primarily to three figures and the "myths" associated with them. They are: T. Christ and Hcbraic mythology. 2. Hermes and Greek mythology. 3. Goethe and European Humanism. f.;:.,j T. Chri.rt and Hebraic mythology: The reference£ to Christ in J().reph the Provider are both explicit and implicit. Though the name Christ is nowhere used, there are references that are unmistakable to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the Christian tradition. References of this kind occur in two sections of the book: in the prologue and in the fifth chapter. In his prologue, which takes place in heaven, Mann is obviously following a pattern set by two great predecessors, Homer and Goethe. One is reminded---· and it is certainly intended that one should be reminded··--of the beginning of the OdyJJey and the beginning of Fa1Ht. As with his predecessors, Mann's heavenly figures survey the action that is to follow and make it clear that the outcome will be favourable to the hero. Mann', however, introduces an element that is not to he found in his predecessors: an indication of future development that goes beyond the time-span of the action of the work itself. We learn that it had been Semae] who had suggested to the Highest One that I-Ie should create man. Now Semael has suggested that the Highest One should descend from heavcn to man, thus following the pattern of certain "heathen" gods who often undergo an incarnation, and the suggestion has been accepted. It is further suggested that this divine intention to some extent explains the divine favour shown to the sinner Joseph, since Joseph belongs to the race in which the god will appear. The whole prologue is, of course, pure irony. Throughout the rest of the tetralogy the author shows that these divine figures are a creation of the human spirit. Tn this prologue he shows the divine figures directing the destiny of their creators. The prologue does, however, contain the first unmistakable references to Christ and so at the very beginning of the fourth novel points towards the future. 6 The fifth chapter of Joseph the Provider is the story of Tamar. In the scriptures this story occurs rather earlier and if Mann had followed scrupulously the arrangement of material of his principal source, Tamar would have appeared at the end of Y01ing Joseph or at the beginning of Joseph in Egypt. But this would have been far too early for the author's purpose, for the Tamar story, like the prologue, proclaims Christ, and Christ belongs in Joseph the Provider. Mann says in The Theme of the J oseph Novels that Tamar scorned no means to get on the path of Promise and become a forbear of the Messiah 3 and in the novel itself he says that she meant to become an ancestor of Shiloh4 . Jacob. had told her of Shiloh and Tamar had recognized in him a saviour and a redeemer, a figure of tremendous importance in the future. This figure is to come out of the tribe of Judah, for it is obviously Judah who will now receive Jacob's blessing instead of Joseph. So Tamar resolves to interpolate herself into the myth and to bear children of the line of Judah whatever the cost. Mann even makes her responsible for inducing Jacob to proclaim the law concerning the marriage of the widow to the brother-in-law, which law does not occur in the bible until a very much later periodS. So the prologue proclaims the incarnation of the spiritual god and the Tamar story proclaims the coming of Shiloh. These are the explicit and unmistakable references to Christ. There are, however, other more subtle ways in which Mann keeps the reader aware of the figure of Christ. The most remarkable of these is the author's use of the formula "It is I" or "I am he"6. The reader cannot fail to be struck by the recurrence of important conversations in which Joseph reveals or confirms his identity. Such conversations occur in five of the seven chapters, and in all cases except his reunion with Jacob, Joseph reveals or confirms his identity with the formula "It is I". II) the first chapter Joseph reveals himself to Mai-Sachme with the words "It is 1"7; in the second chapter he confirms his identity to Pharaoh's messenger with the same words8 ; in the third chapter Joseph reveals 9 and confirms his identity before Pharaoh with the same formula ; and in the sixth chapter Joseph reveals himself to his brethren, again with the words "It is 1"10. Before the brothers and Pharaoh's messenger Joseph's use of this formula seems perfectly in place; before Pharaoh, on the other hand, Joseph muses aloud whether "It is I" is really appropriate, and in using the words to the jailer, Mai-Sachme, Joseph departs so far from the role of the humble prisoner that even that man of unshakable calm gives a start and the author himself feels called upon to comment upon the formula: "In short, 'It is l' was a formula, echoing from far off, familiar from of old, and of popular appeal-the formula of the revelation of iden.tity, of a ritual action popular since primitive times in proclamatory narratIve and in divine mime ..."11

3 Joseph und seine B1'i2der. In Neue Studien, p. 176. 4 Joseph de1" Erniihre1", p. 336. 5 Deuteronomy 5, 25. 6 Both are in German "Ieh bin's". 7 Joseph del' Erniihl'er, p. 44. 8 Ibid., p. 117. 9 Ibid., p. 176. 10 Ibid., p. 484. 11 Ibid., p. 45. 7 Joseph's action in using this formula is in no way different from the majority of his actions. Consciously he uses an age-old phrase, rich in associations and allusions. He speaks according to an established pattern, he moves in deep-worn tracks. This is immediately clear from Mann's explanation of the formula as something pointing to the past. It is, however, a formula that points equally clearly towards the future. The same formula is used three times by Christ in the famous episode when Judas leads the soldiers to the garden over the brook Cedronl2. And as though to make doubly sure that the reader-or at least the reader familiar with Mann's essays-should associate the phrase indelibly with Christ, the author himself makes this association in the essay Fretul and the Ft.tl&re. He talks here of myth as legitimization of life and asks how one can live and die more worthilv than in the celebration of the myth. He mentions Jesus and his life "which w;s lived in order that that which was written might be fulfilled" and refers to the words of Jesus on the cross:

"That, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' was evidently not in the least an outburst of despair and disillusionment, but on the contrary a lofty Messianic sense of self. For the phrase is not original, not a spontaneous outcry. It stands at the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, which from one end to the other is a proclamation of the Messiah. Jesus was quoting, and the quotation meant 'Yes, it is Il' "13

Despite the frequency of the references to Christ it is obviously not the author's intention that the reader should be reminded of Christ alone amongst the many figures who follow Joseph. The centuries between Joseph and Christ must also be conjured up, at least by occasional refl3rences and allusions. Mann's principal means of achieving this end is a kind of a'Aachronism. The author puts into the mouth of Joseph and his contemporaries words that are either taken literally from later parts of the scriptures or else are unmistakable echoes of later parts of the scriptures. To take only a few examples: the Egyptian Chamat begins his address to the prisoner Joseph with words that arc strongly reminiscent of the first chapter of Samuel 2 ("how are the mighty fallen" etc.) 14 and Joseph ends his reply to Chamat with almost a direct quotation from the nineteenth Psalmls. Mai-Sachme expresses the hope that Joseph will remember him "when he inherits his kingdom"16. Tamar says to Jacob: "Thy people are my people and thy God is my God", which is a literal quotation of the words of Ruth to Naomil7. In putting these words into the mouth of Tamar, the author doubtless hopes that the reader will remember that Boaz, with whom Ruth entered into a relationship not unlike that of Tamar to Judah, was a great-great­ grandson of Pharez, the son of Tamar and Judah.

By such devices Mann not only conjures up later sections of Hebraic mythology but also suggests that when a myth is finally told in writing not only names and incidents but whole phrases and sentences may be taken over from a remote past.

f 2 John 18, 5. The "lIlH; chapter includes a phrase particularly relevant to Mann's conception of Christ: "that the saying- might be fulfilled". 13 J!.rend 'II lid di/' ZlIJwnft. In Adel des GeisteJ, p. 582. 14 .Joseph di'J' Ern dh1't r. p. 32. 15 Ibid., p. 35. 16 Ibid., p. 120. Matthew 25, 34. 17 Ruth 1, IG. 8 There is manifestly no lack of evidence in the text of ]o.reph the Provider that Mann constantly brings in the future development from Joseph to Christ and particularly Christ himself. Let us repeat: that life in the myth is repetition and rebirth can be shown clearly in the representation of a mythic development only when the author can point to a later stage that shows characteristics of the most primitive and of the central mythic stages. By imitation and identification Joseph lives again the Tammuz-Osiris myth, and by the same process Christ lives again the Tammuz-Osiris myth plus Joseph's contribution. In the earliest stage, Tammuz-the god who dies, is buried and lives again. In the central stage, Joseph-the man who is cast into the pit, is dead to his father and brothers, is born again in Egypt and, to his father and brothers, rises from the dead: the man who is the mediator between God (Pharaoh) and mankind and between two kingdoms and who becomes "the provider". In the latest stage, Christ-he who dies, is buried, is resurrected, is mediator between God and man and heaven and earth and becomes "the saviour". 2. H erme.r and Greek mythology: The biblical story itself suggests that Joseph undergoes a change after he leaves the prison. Thus the self-dedication to the Highest One that had kept him pure despite the wiles of Potiphar's wife is now no barrier to his taking to wife Asenath, daughter of the priest of On. More striking still is the fact that Joseph is no longer even considered by Jacob as the recipient of his special blessing, which goes instead to Judah.

This change in Joseph that is suggested in Genesis is made explicit by Mann, who develops the new worldly quality of Joseph in considerable detail in the fourth chapter. At the same time Mann links this worldly Joseph with a different mythic tradition-that of Greece-and Joseph himself begins to assume traits of the god Hermes. Mann states in The Them.e of the ]o.reph N avel.r that Joseph "perceptibly slides into a Hermes part"18, but the links with Hermes are unmistakable even without this statement by the author. They first appear in the third chapter. As the first sign of his favour Pharaoh gives to Joseph a 11ermes symbol, a lyre, and soon ~fterwards tells of the birth of a god who is obviously Hermes, "a jester and cattle-thief"19. It'is no coincidence that this conversation between Joseph and Pharaoh should take place in "the Cretan bower", for the island of Crete was commonly associated with the god and was held to mediate between the Near East and Europe. The main links between Joseph and Hermes are easily recognizable: above all, the idea of mediation. Hermes, the god of the heralds and the roads, is the mediator between the gods and man and between the kingdom of the dead and the kingdom of the living. Joseph, as we saw above, is a mediator between similar spheres. It is noteworthy in this connection that Joseph emphasizes his connection with the underworld of the dead by choosing for his residence :Vlemphis, the city of death. Hermes was the lord of the herds and an authority in matters of fertility: Joseph is familiar with "the Nile mud and fertility from the deep" and gains his fame by his administration during the seven years of plenteousness and the seven years of dearth.

1 B Joseph 1i'Jld Jeme BrUder, in Neue Stud·ten, p. 178. 19 JOJej,h del' ErnahrC"l", p. 180. 9 ~ermes is a rogue and jester, god of luck and of gain, of thieves and liars: J~seph IS addressed by Pharoah's official on his first appearance at the palace with the words: "¥ou seem to me to be a kind of jester and joker a sort of rogue and cattle-thief at whose tricks one can't help laughing."20 ' H~rmes is clo~ely linked in later Greek literature with oratory: Joseph is charactenzed from hiS early youth by eloquence and glibness of tongue and it is this gift that first wins him the favour of Pharaoh. ' Hermes at times ~ppears as the astute, worldly-wise business-man amongst the gods and also occasIOnally appears amongst men as a beautiful youth. It is scarcely necessary to mention that Joseph's appearance is one of extraordinary beauty and that in this novel he plays the part of the astute man of the world and man of affairs. Thus we see that Joseph, who has played so important a part in the development of the Christian myth, is placed in Joseph the Provider within a different mythic development and points forward not only to Christ but also to Hermes and the gods of Greece21 . Obviously the figures of Christ and Hermes are by no means unrelated: both have in common the role of mediator between the divine and man, but whereas in Christ the spiritual predominates, it is worldliness that is the salient feature of Hermes. At the same time it should be remembered that in many of the Greek cults it is an easy transition from Hermes to Dionysos, who embodies in the purest form traits of Tammuz and of Christ, so that further indirect relationships between Joseph and Greek mythology are thus established. In linking Joseph so clearly with Herme)t and in including obvious references to Hermes in the novel, Mann is not extending the temporal range of the work: the mythic development that he conjures up through Hermes coincides roughly in time with the development from Joseph to Christ. He is, however, extending greatly the spatial range of the work to embrace the two great pillars of modern European civiliZiation: Christianity and Greek antiquity. Still more important is the revelation that Mann achieves of "the unity of the human spirit"22. That one figure should reveal traits of Tammuz, of Christ and of Hermes indicates that the myth-creating forces within man work in similar ways at all times and in all places. 3. Goethe and E1.ropean H1.manism: The future references described above extend over what we called earlier the time-stratum immediately above the central stratum: that bounded by Joseph at one end and Christ at the other. But there is also an obvious modern stratum, extending throughout the Christian era and even into time yet to come. This stratum is made up of many elements, from the editorial intrusions of the author to the use in Egyptian conversations of

20 Ibid., p. 161. 21 Naturally it is highly debatable whether Joseph can really be said to point "forward" to Hermes. In matter which is almost entirely prehistoric it is impossible to say whether Joseph really precedes Hermes in time or vice versa. What can be said with certainty is that the period of Hermes' greatest renown, the period through which he has corne down to us-­ namely the golden age of Greek literature-is much later than any period at which Joseph could have lived. 22 "Einheit des Menschengeistes"-used by Mann in S. Fischers Almanach fiir 1935. Quoted by Anna Jacobson. See bibliography. 10 modern German borrowings from foreign languages and such intentional anachroni'sms as the statement that Pharaoh looked like a young Englishman. But the most important element in this modern stratum consists of the references to Goethe and, indirectly, to Mann's own concept of a new Humanism. Naturally enough the name of Goethe is nowhere mentioned in the novel, but Goethe is proclaimed in the title of the opening section. The prologue bears the title "Prelude in upper Regions", which is undoubtedly intended as an ironic paraphrase of the "Prologue in Heaven" with which Goetbe's Faust begins. As we saw above, there are further obvious similarities between the two prologues: the same characters appear-the Lord, the devil and the angels: the fate of the hero is foreshadowed in both: some of the principal ideas of both works occur in the prologue. Thus, from the very beginning, the reader is made aware of Goethe and a link is established between the life of Joseph and a work of Goethe's. There arc then allusions to Goethe throughout the novel, though for the most part much more veiled allusions than those to Christ and Hermes. The one that comes to mind immediately is the relationship between J osepb and the young Amenhotep. The parallels between this relationship anc! that of Goethe and Karl August are too striking to be coincidental. Furthermore one probably does not read too much into the text if one sees in Tacob's attitude to Tamar as described on page 312 a reflection of the elder Goethe's attitude to attractive young women of strong personality. It is also unlikely to be a coincidence that Joseph is referred to as "del' Hatschelhans"23, a word that Goethe's mother was in the habit of applying to her son. However, Mann's principal method of conjuring up Goethe is even more subtle than those described above. It is done through the main leit-motif that accompanies Joseph throughout this novel. In the previous novels of the tetralogy Joseph's main leit-motif had been in its basic form; "A dreamer of dreams, who believed that all human beings could not help loving him more than themselves". This motif occurs only once in Joseph the Providet24, for it is no longer relevant to the mature Joseph. Joseph's new leit-motif is first stated by Pharoah: "But he seems to me blessed from above and below"25. This leit-motif, with variations, then accompanies Joseph throughout the novel: it occurs in the most important piece of character analysis in the novel, the section "Urim and Turnmim"26, in the brothers' discussion of the character of the governor of Egypt27, in the reunion of Jacob and ]oseph28 , in the author's description of the ageing J oseph29 , and finally in Jacob's official blessing on his death-bed: "Be blessed, as thou already art, with blessings from above and from the deep that lieth under, with blessings gushing from the breasts of heaven ,md from the womb of earth."30 As with the "It is I" formula, the author may safely assume that anyone familiar with his other works will realize the significance that he attaehes to Jacob's blessing. 'Mann had quoted and discussed the blessing in both What I

23 Joseph del Ernahrer, p. 27. 24 Ibid., p. 42. 25 Ibid., p. 236. 26 Tbid., p. 278. 2'7 [bid." p. 404. 28 Tbid., p. 582. 29 Ihie1., p. 582. 30 Ihid., p. 622. Mann altcr~ slightly the text of Jacob's blessing in Ccnesis. (Genesis 49,25). 11 believe and The Them,e of th.e j oJeph LV ovels3 t, but above all he had used it in Lotte in Weimar. These are the words that Dr. Riemer uses to describe the very essence of Goethe's being: it is the formula that epitomizes true greatness and signifies the completely harmonious personality in which, as Dr. Riemer says, "the spiritual culminates without there adhering to it any hostility to the natural"32, We saw in our study of some basic ideas of the tetralogy as a whole hm, Joseph assumes in j oJeph the Provider characteristics of the mythically oriented artist and thus move]> close to Goethe, Through the allusions to Goethe and particularly through the use of Jacob's blessing as Joseph's leit-motif, Mann ensures that the associations with Goethe are kept alive throughout. So again the unity of the human spirit is suggested: the type of harmonious greatness thitt Joseph and Goethe represent has occurred in the most diverse ages and places, But can it not occur again in the future, and not merely as an isolated phenomenon? Is it not possible that mankind-or a significant section of mankind -may attain to this same harmony, this synthesis of the higher and lower, of Christian spirituality and other-worldliness and Greek joy in this life! This is an idea to which Mann constantly returns in his later work: he discusses it 111 The Theme of the J()Jeph No'velJ and particularly in Wh.at I belic'L'e, where he again makes use of the blessing that he applies to both Joseph and Goethe: "I believe in the coming of a new, a third Iiumanism , .. not lightly did I choose as the hero of the epic that was to become my life's work a man blessed with the blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, .. for me it is the briefest possible formulation of my idea of humanity", Thus j oJeph the Provider points beyond Goethe and beyond the present to a future in which the characteristics of .J oseph may be the characteristics of humanity.

What has been said above in this attempt to bring out the nature and significance of the future reference of Joseph the Provider may give the impression that the author concentrates on the future at the expense of the present. Nothing could be further from the truth, The novel is a vivid and gripping recreation of Joseph's life in Egypt from the time he is cast into prison to the death of Jacob. It is one of Mann's great achievements that, without sacrificing the vividness of this present, he succeeds in conjuring up additional time-strata, in particular those extending from Joseph to Christ and from Christ to the present day and beyond, and also in extending the range of the material to embrace Greek antiquity, Myth in the process of formation is thus represented in a way that is unique in European literature,

31 The The'nu; oJ the Joseph Novelr was published (in English) before the Stockholm eclition of Joseph der Ern2ihrer. 32 T~otte ,in Weimar, pp, 88-90,

12 Bibliography

Although titles and quotations are given in English throughout the paper, the German text of Mann's work was used in all cases. Translations from the novels are my own; in quoting fr0111 Freucl "u/nd die Z1.thcnIt I bavc made use of the English translation published in New York in 1937. The quotation from What 1 bel1:eve is taken from the work by H. A. M aiel' mentioned below.

Thomas Mann: Die Geschichten Jaakobs, Berlin, 1933. Del' junge Joseph, Berlin, 1934. Joseph in Aegypten, Vienna, 1936. Joseph del' Ernahrer, Stockholm, 1943. Lotte in Weimar, Stockholm, 1939. Freml unci die Zukunft, in Adel des Geistes, Stockholm, 1948. Joseph und seine BrUder, in Neue Studien, Stockholm, 1948 (English translation entitled The Theme of the Joseph Novels, Washington, 1942).

Most critical studies of Mann's later work contain some material that IS relevant to the subject of this paper. The following are particularly useful: Hamburger, IGte: Thomas Manns Roman Joseph uno seine BrUcier. Eine I~inflihrung. Stockholm, 1945. Jacobson, Anna: Das plastische Element im J oseph-Roman. Monatshefte, October, 1945. Lesser, Jonas: Thomas Mann in del' Epoche seiner Vollendung. Munich, 1952. Maier, Hans Albert: Stefan George und Thomas Mann. Zwei Formen des dritten Humanismus in kritischem Vergleich. ZUrich, 1947. Thieberger, Richard: Del' Begriff del' Zeit bei ThomasMann, Baden-Baden, 1952.

lVlaterial on Hermes was 'drawn from: L, R. l"arnell: Cults of the Greek States--Hennes (Vo!. 5). Oxford, 1909.

K. LEOPOLD

UNIVE~SP Y' LIBRARv

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