Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2015
Abstract
The paper aims to compare two authors of the Fin-de-Siècle from the German-speaking area (Thomas Mann and Hugo von Hofmannsthal) and tries to offer a specific "German" interpretation of contemporary phenomena like dandyism or estheticism. For the German area, Mann's concept of the bourgeoisie as a spiritual form of life appears to be relevant.
It is the idea of the middle way denying any sort of excess and connected with moral obligation. Therefore, German "decadence" is lacking an explicit anti-social gesture (dandyism) and is merely the expression of the process of "Entbürgerlichung".