Tonio Kroger
1. Thomas Mann – Tonio Kroger
General Overview
* Similarities and differences between Thomas Mann and Tonio Kroger Similarities | Differences | Mixed parents (and both of them were well aware of this fact) | Tonio Kroger – not married
Thomas Mann – married | homosexuality | Tonio Kroger – no kids, no siblings (It is to stress the fact that Tonio is an outcast) | Father’s death and the liquidated business | Thomas Mann – no foreign name | Outcast | Denmark | Italy | |
* Working title : initially, Literature
* Main theme of the novella : a struggle with being an artist
* Tonio’s problem? : it lies within himself. He does not know where he belongs. ( existential crisis) duality & polarity loves and hates life at the same time. Artistic problem Thomas felt is reflected on Tonio **Tonio’s world = Thomas Mann’s world
* Hans Hansenn & Ingeborg Holm: represents “Life”
Life / Apollonian Part | Art / Dionysian Part | North & West (familiar) | South & East (exotic) | Health | Sickness | Heterosexuality (normal/healthy/socially acceptable) | Homosexuality (forbidden) | Reason, intellectual | Feelings & emotion | Norm | | morality | Criminality |
**Art has to relate Life/Apollonian Part to the Art and Dionysian Part.
To lessen the polarity, communication is needed between the two worlds.
* Concept of art has changed over the past
Simple hand work & determined by history ( arts as an instrument of politics) stabilize / destabilize politics
Summary
The narrative follows the course of a man's life from his schoolboy days to his adulthood. The son of a north German merchant and an Italian artist, Tonio inherited qualities from both sides of his family. As a child, he experiences conflicting feelings
General Overview
* Similarities and differences between Thomas Mann and Tonio Kroger Similarities | Differences | Mixed parents (and both of them were well aware of this fact) | Tonio Kroger – not married
Thomas Mann – married | homosexuality | Tonio Kroger – no kids, no siblings (It is to stress the fact that Tonio is an outcast) | Father’s death and the liquidated business | Thomas Mann – no foreign name | Outcast | Denmark | Italy | |
* Working title : initially, Literature
* Main theme of the novella : a struggle with being an artist
* Tonio’s problem? : it lies within himself. He does not know where he belongs. ( existential crisis) duality & polarity loves and hates life at the same time. Artistic problem Thomas felt is reflected on Tonio **Tonio’s world = Thomas Mann’s world
* Hans Hansenn & Ingeborg Holm: represents “Life”
Life / Apollonian Part | Art / Dionysian Part | North & West (familiar) | South & East (exotic) | Health | Sickness | Heterosexuality (normal/healthy/socially acceptable) | Homosexuality (forbidden) | Reason, intellectual | Feelings & emotion | Norm | | morality | Criminality |
**Art has to relate Life/Apollonian Part to the Art and Dionysian Part.
To lessen the polarity, communication is needed between the two worlds.
* Concept of art has changed over the past
Simple hand work & determined by history ( arts as an instrument of politics) stabilize / destabilize politics
Summary
The narrative follows the course of a man's life from his schoolboy days to his adulthood. The son of a north German merchant and an Italian artist, Tonio inherited qualities from both sides of his family. As a child, he experiences conflicting feelings