Abstract

The theme of origins and the original is a central one in Thomas Mann’s Joseph und seine Brüder. Here the author is determined to shift from the «bourgeois» to the «mythical» novel. The fall into the «deep well of the past» implies, on the one hand, the interaction with the authenticity of existence, but it implies, on the other hand, the risk – also a political one – of primitivism and archaism. Therefore, the critical reconstruction of the «Ur» theme – achieved through the analysis of the Biblical tetralogy, of the essays related to it, and through an outline of the complex intellectual environment in which Thomas Mann acted – leads to a renewed interpretation of the Twentieth century spiritual crisis