On the theatricality of Th. Mann’s novel “Confessions of Felix Krull”

Abstract

The article analyzes functioning of the category of theatricality in Thomas Mann’s novel “Confessions of Felix Krull”. The article also considers the embodiment of the formal and informative aspects of this category. The authors pay close attention to the image of the main character, whose characteristic feature becomes proteanism: throughout the narrative, he appears before the reader in different roles and guises. The image of Felix Krull combines both actor’s and director’s types of the theatricality presented in the novel, which allows the author to maintain the conflict between the illusory festivity of a theatricalized life and the grayness of reality. For the main character of the novel, theatricality becomes the main way to comprehend the world, while innate talent for transformation, skillful play, and techniques of enchanting the audience are the basis of his behavior. The functioning of the category of theatricality at different levels of the text and the use of various theatrical techniques in the novel promote disclosure of the concept of the artist in the writer’s work. Mann’s novel about the artist is conjugated with a liminal, borderline world perception. The opposition of spirit (art) / life (burgher), gradually turning into correlation, is the main path for evolution of his artistic world.