American code in Thomas Mann’s novellas «Tonio Kröger» and «The Black Swan»

Abstract

National identity plays an important semantic role in Thomas Mann’s fictional world. Vivid examples of the literary game with the national code are his novellas «Tonio Kröger» and «The Black Swan», in which the American code acts as a semantic motif – although to a different extent. The article presents an attempt to determine the semantics of this code, as well as to identify the main features of its evolution in the writer’s work. The image of America and Americans arises in Mann’s works in the context of oppositions traditional for the history of philosophy – between culture and civilization, democracy and aristocracy. The ironic attitude towards American civilization on the part of German culture, which is typical for Mann’s early work, is replaced by the hope for the possibility of their synthesis in the novel «Joseph and His Brothers», while «The Black Swan» parodies the utopia of their harmony.