Abstract

In “Toward a Portrait of Thomas Mann,” Theodor Adorno suggests that Mann's narrative practice could be consistent with Adornian avant-garde art, because Mann's irony negates the very semblance upon which art relies: “there is no doubt that [Mann] disguised himself as a ‘public figure,’ that is, from his contemporaries, and this disguise itself needs to be understood. Not the least of the functions of Mann's irony, certainly, was to practice this disguise and at the same time negate it by confessing it in language.”2 By quoting passages from Adorno's musical aesthetics within what seems to be a straightforward parable about…