Heinrich Mann's Novels and Essays

Gunnemann, Karin Veren. Heinrich Mann's Novels and Essays: The Artist as Political Educator. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2002. 237 pp. $59.00 hardcover. Gunnemann's study on Heinrich Mann's artistic and political engagement follows in the tradition of previous scholarship on Mann's attempt to integrate political and moral education into his work. Indeed, given the quality of previous efforts to explore how Mann's political commitment shaped his literary and essayistic work, one might initially wonder whether yet another book on the theme might simply recapitulate what other Mann scholars have already said. And, to a certain extent, Gunnemann's research does move through territory that others have already explored thoroughly. Nevertheless, this study does make a contribution to scholarly literature on Mann and fills a significant niche. Few studies succeed as does this one in introducing Mann to a broad academic audience interested in but still perhaps largely unfamiliar with his stature as a writer. Gunnemann consistently presents many of Mann's major works and essays in historical context. Even readers unfamiliar with modern German history will find in Gunnemann's elucidation of the political and cultural context of Mann's works a helpful primer on the political and social conflicts present in the Kaiserreich, Weimarer Republik, and Nazi period. Indeed, as a fairly comprehensive introduction to Mann's political aesthetic, Gunnemann's study surpasses previous scholarly efforts directed primarily at the English-speaking academy. Gunnemann focuses on several of Mann's novels and examines how they reflect the author's development away from aestheticist beginnings toward advocacy for democracy. In each of these discussions, she draws parallels to Mann's essays to elucidate Mann's evolution as political artist. Gunnemann also occasionally refers to some of Mann's short fiction from these periods, but by and large restricts her discussion to the novel and essay. The most significant departure from her focus on the novel is her analysis of Mann's Weimar narrative, Kobes. Kobes represents, as Gunnemann demonstrates, one of Mann's most interesting experiments with innovative narrative forms; and Gunnemann's analysis situates the story as a turning point in Mann's developing aesthetic and political sensibilities. The most incisive analyses in this study investigate Mann's attempts to develop a style that could address the changing sensibilites of the younger readers in the Weimar Republic

Art · Art history · Literature · Political science · Politics · Sociology · German History and Society · German Literature and Culture Studies · History · Law · Musicology and Musical Analysis

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