Artificial I's - The Self as Artwork in Ovid, Kierkegaard, and Thomas Mann

This study explores three works in which the protagonist undertakes to fashion a literary artwork out of himself: Ovid's »Ars Amatoria«, Kierkegaard's »Diary of the Seducer«, and Thomas Mann's »Felix Krull«. For each work, particular attention is paid to the self-conscious interplay between the author's project of book-making and the character's project of self-making, as well as to the effect of changing notions of self-identity on the protagonist's attempt at life as literature. For »Felix Krull«, this includes a sustained analysis of Mann's incorporation and problematization of various Nietzschean models of aesthestics, reality, and self-identity. In Ovid and Kierkegaard, this study also considers a related project, the attempt to fashion a literary artwork out of another, namely out of a woman.

Product details

• Authors: Eric Downing
• Publisher: Niemeyer, Tübingen
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.1993
• EAN: 9783484181274
• ISBN: 978-3-484-18127-4
• No. of pages: 244
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 21 mm x 230 mm
• Weight: 509 g
• Series: Studien zur deutschen Literatur; Studien zur deutschen Literatur; ISSN
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > German linguistics / literary studies