Apotheosis and Incarnation Myths in Mann's Joseph und seine Bruder
1983; Wiley; Volume: 56; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/404805
ISSN1756-1183
Autores Tópico(s)Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies
Resumothematic center of Joseph und seine Briider as the blessing which Joseph receives from Jaakob, a blessing vom Himmel herab und von der Tiefe, die unten liegt.2 Almost at the beginning of the novel, Mann indicates that that blessing represents a total harmony of the spiritual and physical natures of man, a harmony which in turn represents both his potential perfectibility and the qualities required of a story whose Gegenstand ist der erste und letzte unseres Redens und Fragens ...: das Menschenwesen (p. 54). These two sides of man are his Geist and the Fleischesseele, and are clearly meant to be understood in the context of the Roman der Seele which is the subject of sections 8 and 9 of the Vorspiel: Hollenfahrt. The Roman der Seele is based on a Gnostic myth, formulated in an article by Hans Heinrich Schaeder,3 which Schaeder sent to Mann, who quoted from it at length in section 8 of the HOllenfahrt. The myth recounts the descent to earth of a preexistent divinity, the primal or heavenly man who is the Urbild und Inbegriff der Menschheit (p. 39); his entrapment in matter; and his eventual return to heaven where he will reassume his full divinity and be reunited with God. Willy R. Berger and Herbert Lehnert, who have dealt in detail with Mann's sources for Joseph, discuss Mann's use of the Schaeder article, and Berger in particular has noted the myth's connection to Joseph's blessing and to the book's central It remains to investigate the many links between the Gnostic myth and the various, far-flung motifs which embody that central theme. The close connection of this myth to others used in the novel has not been fully appreciated, especially to those which depict the apotheosis of an individual human or of mankind in general, or, conversely, the incarnation of divinity in man. Some of the most important of these myths and motifs are discussed here, particularly the myth of Henoch-Metatron, a figure in Jewish mysticism with whom Joseph identifies in the novel, and who is a Jewish version of the Gnostic primal or celestial man. Before these correspondences of motif and myth can be examined, two methodological points must be made. First, some important details in the novel involve arcane knowledge which the text itself does not always
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