Reflections Of A Nonpolitical Man
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The ''Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man'' () is a non-fiction work by German author
Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
published in 1918. Unlike his brother Heinrich, Thomas Mann supported the German war effort during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. The book, which runs to almost six hundred pages, defends the authoritarianism and "culture" of Germany against the "civilization" of the
West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...
. It served to justify and distinguish his conservative political stance from that of his more liberally oriented brother.


Writing and publication history


Background

Thomas Mann – like many of his fellow German writers – had a positive attitude towards the German war effort during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In three essays written after the outbreak of the war in 1914 – ' ("Thoughts in Wartime" ugust/September 1914, ("Good News from the Front" ctober 1914 and ("Frederick and the Great Coalition" eptember to December 1914 – he defended German warfare and first promulgated his support for the .
Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
and other French authors criticised this literary support for Germany and in particular the support of the German invasion of neutral Belgium. Rolland from time to time also criticised Mann personally for his pro-war stance and substantiated this reproach in the essay , which was later published as part of the essay collection . In this essay he criticised Thomas Mann's militarism and ill-advised fanaticism. This reproach was a major impulse for Mann to begin writing the ''Reflections''; he specifically answered Rolland in the chapter called "Against Justice and Truth". From the summer of 1915 onwards, he started to arrange his material to support Germany in intellectual and cultural terms. The impulse for authoring the book was intensified by an essay on
Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...
written by his brother
Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; March 27, 1871 – March 11, 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German writer known for his sociopolitical novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...
, which appeared in René Schickele's pacifist journal '' Die Weißen Blätter'' in autumn 1915. This essay contained swipes at his unnamed brother and painted him as a patriotic propagandist. According to the scholar , this essay caused Thomas Mann to expand his material from a mere essay into a whole book.


Writing process

The writing (fall 1915 to February 1918) of the ''Reflections'' has been divided into four phases by : first, the beginning of the drafting process in the wake of Thomas Mann's war essays in the second half of 1915; second, his engagement with the ("Civilization's Literary Men") and the elaboration of the dichotomy between "culture" and "civilisation", which deals with his brother after the publication of the Zola essay; third, the long discussion of a set of typological dichotomies; finally, the incorporation of aesthetic considerations (for example, the discussion of
Hans Pfitzner Hans Erich Pfitzner (5 May 1869 – 22 May 1949) was a German composer, conductor and polemicist who was a self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera ''Palestrina'' (1917), loosely based on the life of the ...
's opera ''Palestrina''). The writing ended with the drafting of the prologue in February 1918, which gives commentary on the overall layout of the book.


Publication history and translations

The book was published shortly before the
armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...
in October 1918. It was not translated into English during Thomas Mann's lifetime. According to Tobias Boes, the non-translation of the work during his lifetime was intentional on Mann's part due to chauvinistic content of the book which could have led to his abandonment by the American public. The first English translation by Walter D. Morris under the title ''Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man'' was published in 1983 by Frederick Unger Publishing Company. This translation was republished in 2021 as a NYRB Classic with an introduction by
Mark Lilla Mark Lilla (born 1956) is an American political scientist, historian of ideas, journalist, and professor of humanities at Columbia University in New York City. A self-described liberal, he typically, though not always, presents views from that p ...
.


Motifs

The ''Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man'' has been recognised as a wartime treatise. Thomas Mann saw his work as "intellectual military service" in the confrontation between German "culture" and French and British "civilisation". Christopher Beha argues that the central motif of the ''Reflections'' is the dichotomy between "civilization" and "culture". Civilization, according to Thomas Mann, "involves reason, enlightenment, moderation, moral education, skepticism". Culture represents the opposite for him, namely "the sublimation of the demonic". He assaults Civilization’s Literary Men (), because they treat "culture as a means, rather than an end in itself."


Content


Prologue []

The "Prologue" is a reflection on the work written in previous three years. Mann provides the main reasons for the writing of this long treatise and introduces its main themes:


Chapter 1: The Protest []

The first chapter of the book is noticeably short. In it, Mann uses Fyodor Dostoevsky to explain that Germany as the country has always protested against the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic and
Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...
.


Chapter 2: The Unliterary Country []

In the brief second chapter, the "Roman" Western world is described as being literary, while Germany is introduced as the "unliterary country".


Chapter 3: Civilisation's Literary Man []

In the third chapter, the "Francophile" progressive authors (his brother Heinrich being one of them) are introduced as Civilisation's Literary Men (). The ideal of Civilisation's Literary Men is
democratisation Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. Whether and to what ...
, which Mann considers to be antithetical to Germany's inner nature.


Chapter 4: Soul-Searching []

In the chapter titled "Soul-Searching", Mann explains the significance of the "triumvirate" of Arthur Schopenhauer, Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche as the inspirators for his thinking.


Chapter 5: Burgherly Nature []

In "Burgherly Nature", Mann contrasts the solidity of Bildungsbürgertum, burgherly individualist ethics with the bottomlessness of ethicists.


Chapter 6: "Against Justice and Truth" []

The chapter "Against Justice and Truth" has a paraphrased quotation from Heinrich Mann's Émile Zola, Zola essay as its title. In it, Mann defends his early wartime essays against his brother Heinrich and
Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
.


Chapter 7: Politics []

The chapter on politics is by far the longest. Here Mann defines aestheticism as freedom from politics. He then turns to deliberations inspired by Emil Hammacher and Paul de Lagarde about Bismarck, the state, conservatism, suffrage, democracy, politicised art and Germany in 1914.


Chapter 8: On Virtue []

In his chapter on virtue, Mann opposes the virtue of Civilisation's Literary Men () which relies on buzzwords and contrasts it with the pessimistic ethos of Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, Joseph von Eichendorff's '' Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing'', Paul Claudel's ' and Hans Pfitzner's opera ''Palestrina''.


Chapter 9: Some Comments on Humanity []

In his comments on humanity, Mann develops a humanity of suffering and service.


Chapter 10: On belief []

Fyodor Dostoevsky inspires the chapter "On belief". According to Mann, true faith is not faith in any principles, words and ideas such as freedom, equality, democracy, civilisation and progress, but faith in God, meaning, at the same time, faith in love, life and art.


Chapter 11: On Aestheticism []

The last two chapters of the work deal with aestheticism. In "On Aestheticism''"'', Mann explains that political artistry is false because he considers it to be half intellectual, intentional and artificial. The chapter ends with a notable critique of
expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
and
satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...
.


Chapter 12: Irony and Radicalism []

In the closing chapter on "Irony and Radicalism", Mann marks his work as being inspired by irony. The works of Civilisation's Literary Men () are in contrast characterised as works of radicalism. The scholar explains that Mann sees irony as conservative self-denial of the spirit in favour of life, which is supposed to stand against the anti-life radicalism and activism of the spirit.


Legacy and modern reception

Thomas Mann never fully denounced the views espoused in the ''Reflections'', even after the 1929
Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
had become one of the main opponents of
Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
among German expatriates in the United States. Instead, he viewed the work as a crucial step on his journey as a writer. Christopher Beha argues that the ''Reflections'' are "a strange, frequently off-putting book, a 500-page assault on democracy, enlightenment and reason", but sees value in the idea that "we do damage to life's most important elements when we use them instrumentally, for political ends". By exposing this he sees the book as posing "a real challenge to our moment, obsessed as it is with the political responsibility of the artist."


References


Citations


Sources

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Further reading

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External links

* {{Authority control Conservative Revolutionary movement German-language literature 1918 non-fiction books Books by Thomas Mann NYRB Classics