| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Book Reviews | May 2003 |
Temptations of Faust: The Logic of Fascism and
Postmodern Archaeologies of Modernity by Evelyn Cobley,
University of Toronto Press, 305 Pages, Cloth, $55.00
An
excruciatingly confusing statement on postmodernism, and how it may or may not relate
to Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus
By Alidë Kohlhaas
No doubt, most people who have read or will read in the near future Thomas Mann’s novel, Doctor Faustus, are aware that the novelist used his work as a parable to show that his countrymen sold their soul to the devil upon embracing fascism. Mann uses the protagonist, the composer Adrian Leverkühn, as a lightening rod to show how easy it is to sell one’s soul.
The composer’s reason for the sell-out: he sought the ultimate fame of becoming the greatest living composer of his time. His musical creations involve the 12-tone scale, and Mann freely admitted that he based this creative genius on composer Arnold Schönberg. The novelist did so with the help of the left-wing philosopher, Theodor Adorno, with whom he associated during his years in the United States. Adorno wrote a study, Philosophy of Modern Music, which Mann used extensively to explain his protagonist’s musical theory.
Having attempted for a long time to understand the German mind without much success, I chose to read The Temptations of Faust, which above the title has subheading, The Logic of Fascism and Postmodern Archaeologies of Modernity. The writer is Evelyn Cobley, a professor in the department of English at the University of Victoria, B.C. It was naive of me to think I could find the answers I sought in this book. Cobley delves into Mann’s novel only peripherally, and instead peppers her book with endless references to numerous left-wing philosophers, past and . . .
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