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Bourgeois Ambivalence: A Comparative Investigation of Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land by Primrose May Deen Young A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Modern Languages School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham September 2016 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract The thesis explores important similarities and differences between responses to bourgeois society in Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg (1924) and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922). It examines these texts’ presentations of the shifting morality of bourgeois culture, the prevailing sense of paralysis and fragmentation at the beginning of the twentieth century, and compares the authors’ use of allusions to myth, and their explorations of concepts of time. However, by considering the ambivalent responses to bourgeois society as they are presented within these texts, and a selection of Mann and Eliot’s other creative and critical works, the thesis also highlights significant differences in the authors’ responses to bourgeois society, which are indicative of the broader divergent traditions in which they positioned themselves. Eliot subscribes to a tradition based upon the framework of the Christian faith, and the classical literary canon, with an ‘impersonal’ approach to artistic creation. By contrast, Mann places the German ‘burgher’ at the core of the tradition to which he subscribes, emphasising personality, and favouring a humanistic approach, which values the individual’s capacity for ethical judgement based on reason. This framework demonstrates that the thematic similarities and common allusions in Mann and Eliot’s creative works are underscored by radically different authorial approaches and belief systems. For Mary, who loved poetry, gossip, socialism, and shopping Acknowledgements My thanks go first and foremost to Nick Martin and Steve Ellis, whose inspirational undergraduate modules on Mann and Eliot, respectively, set in motion the thought process which eventually became this thesis. I am indebted to their expertise, their patient guidance, and their invaluable advice throughout the writing of this thesis. I should like to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which funded my research. I should also like to thank the staff of the University of Birmingham Library, the Library of Birmingham, the British Library, and the Huntington Library in California. Finally, thank you to Jonathan, dad, Cathy, Alex, Max, Barbara, and Martin for continued love and support. To Josh, Bethany, Emmanuelle, and Holly, for unfailing friendship and encouragement. Special thanks to Dan, for always being there, and for always having faith in me. And to my mum, who has made everything possible. ‘Smoking a cigar makes me feel so distinguished and European—like Thomas Mann!’ T. S. Eliot Contents Note on the Text List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 1: (DIS)RESPECTFUL RELATIONS AND CULTURAL TRADITIONS 18 i) What Mann and Eliot Knew About Each Other 20 ii) Defining ‘Bürgerlichkeit’ in Opposition to the ‘Bourgeois’ 41 iii) Divergent Perspectives of Cultural Decline 53 iv) Theories of (Im)personality 64 v) Opposing Traditions 68 2: GOETHE, NIETZSCHE, WAGNER: MANN’S ‘BURGHERLY TRADITION’ AND ELIOT’S OPPOSITION 79 i) Goethe: Representative of the ‘Burgherly Age’ 87 ii) Nietzsche: Burgher or ‘mob-man’? 101 iii) Wagner: ‘contorted in paroxysms’: The Burgher’s Bourgeois Excess 118 3: ‘I CAN CONNECT NOTHING WITH NOTHING’: MORAL PASSIVITY AND THE SPIRITUAL VACUUM IN THE WASTE LAND AND DER ZAUBERBERG 130 i) Moral Passivity and Mindless Pleasure: The Cinema 132 ii) The Impossibility of Transcendence from Bourgeois Isolation: Tristan und Isolde in The Waste Land 145 iii) The Spiritual Vacuum of Over-Civilized Society: The Wagnerian Transplanted into the Modern Bourgeois 157 4: VITALIZING MORAL TRANSGRESSIONS 177 i) The Moral(ity) of Der Zauberberg in Light of Mann’s ‘Burgherly Tradition’ 183 ii) The Invigorating Morality of the Primal: Freud, Peeperkorn, and Sweeney 204 iii) Animalistic Sensuality in Discord with the Bourgeois 220 5: TIME: A TORMENT OR A GIFT? 230 i) Clock-Time: A Cause and Symptom of Social and Cultural Decline 233 ii) Time in the West and East 250 iii) Eternal Recurrence 259 iv) Eternity and Regularity: The Seasons 266 Conclusion 274 Bibliography 283 Note on the Text All translations from German are my own, unless otherwise stated. My aim has been to provide translations which are as direct as possible, sometimes at the expense of elegance, so that non-German speakers receive a clearer sense of the syntax, vocabulary, and style of the original. Where possible all quotations are given in their original language with translations provided in the footnotes. Where other authors have quoted in English, I quote their translation and provide the original in the footnotes. In the case of single words or short phrases, translations are given directly after in parentheses in the body of the text, for the reader’s convenience. Titles of works are referred to in their original language (for example, Der Zauberberg), except when they are referred to by another writer, in which case that writer’s choice of title is employed. This thesis follows MHRA conventions on presentation and referencing. All references to Mann’s fictional works and essays are taken from the 1990 edition of the Gesammelte Werke in dreizehn Bänden (Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, 1990). I have chosen not to refer to the more recent Große kommentierte Frankfurter Ausgabe (which will eventually run to thirty-eight volumes), since a number of the essays to which this study refers are still awaiting publication in this edition. (Essays IV 1933-1939, Essays V 1939-1945, and Essays VII 1950- 1955, along with the majority of Mann’s letters are yet to be published.) References to Eliot’s poems are to T. S. Eliot, The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems, ed. by Christopher Ricks and Jim McCue (London: Faber, 2015). In order to make it clearer to the reader which poem is being referred to, and where the reference can be located within the poem, the abbreviated title of the poem, followed by the section number where applicable, and line number are given in the footnotes. Similarly, references to Mann’s novels and short stories, taken from the Gesammelte Werke, are given abbreviated titles, rather than referring to their volume number in the collection to help clarify which text is being referred to. All references to Nietzsche’s works are to the texts as they appear in the electronic version published in the Nietzsche Source collection (http://www.nietzschesource.org/eKGWB), edited by Paolo d’Iorio. List of Abbreviations ASG T. S. Eliot, After Strange Gods: A Primer of Modern Heresy (London: Faber, 1934) B Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks BN T. S. Eliot, ‘Burnt Norton’ CP1 T. S. Eliot, The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical Edition, Volume 1: Apprentice Years, 1905-1918, ed. by Jewel Spears Brooker and Ronald Schuchard (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press and Faber, 2014) CP2 T. S. Eliot, The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical Edition, Volume 2: The Perfect Critic, 1919-1926, ed. by Anthony Cuda and Ronald Schuchard (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press and Faber, 2014) CP3 T. S. Eliot, The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical Edition, Volume 3: Literature, Politics, Belief, 1927-1929, ed. by Frances Dickey, Jennifer Formichelli, and Ronald Schuchard (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press and Faber, 2015) CP4 T. S. Eliot, The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical Edition, Volume 4: English Lion, 1930-1933, ed. by Jason Harding and Ronald Schuchard (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press and Faber, 2015) DF Thomas Mann, Doktor Faustus DS T. S. Eliot, ‘The Dry Salvages’ DTiV Thomas Mann, Der Tod in Venedig EC T. S. Eliot, ‘East Coker’ FA T. S. Eliot, ‘Fragment of an Agon’ FP T. S. Eliot, ‘Fragment of a Prologue’ FW Friedrich Nietzsche, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft GT Friedrich Nietzsche, Die Geburt der Tragödie GWIX Thomas Mann, Reden und Aufsätze 1 (Gesammelte Werke Band IX) (Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, 1990) GWX Thomas Mann, Reden und Aufsätze 2 (Gesammelte Werke Band X) (Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, 1990) GWXI Thomas Mann, Reden und Aufsätze 3 (Gesammelte Werke Band XI) (Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, 1990) GWXII Thomas Mann, Reden und Aufsätze 4 (Gesammelte Werke Band XII) (Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, 1990) ICS T. S. Eliot, The Idea of a Christian Society (London: Faber, 1939) JGB Friedrich Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Böse LG T. S. Eliot, ‘Little Gidding’ LSP T. S. Eliot, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ LTSE1 T. S. Eliot, The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1, 1898-1922, ed. by Valerie Eliot and Hugh Haughton (London: Faber, 2009) LTSE2 T. S. Eliot, The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 2, 1923-1925, ed. by Valerie Eliot and Hugh Haughton (London: Faber, 2009) LTSE3 T. S. Eliot, The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 3, 1926-1927, ed. byValerie Eliot and John Haffenden (London: Faber, 2012) LTSE4 T. S. Eliot, The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 4, 1928-1929, ed. by Valerie Eliot and John Haffenden (London: Faber, 2013) LTSE5 T.
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