274 Besprechungen / Reviews E RNEST S CHONFIELD : Art and its Uses in Thomas Mann’s Felix Krull. London: Maney, 2008. 212 pp. $ 82. This book is volume 70 of the Modern Humanities Research Association’s Texts and Dissertations series. It is also volume 32 of the Bithell Series of Dissertations that is put out by the University of London’s Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies. The first of these series «promotes important work by younger scholars by making the most accomplished doctoral research available» (ii), while the second «publishes outstanding recent doctoral theses» (ii). The book’s inclusion in these series accordingly leads one to expect a very good dissertation indeed. By and large, it proves to be exactly that. Its preface states that its purpose is to «demonstrate why and how Felix Krull is a great novel,» to show that Krull is at once «entertaining and intellectually challenging - and that it possesses formal and conceptual richness on a grand scale» (vii). Schonfield’s book is also based on «the idea that identity and society are permeated with aesthetics» (vii), and it considers implications that Felix Krull has for understanding Mann’s entire oeuvre. Planned since 1902 but not published in its final form until 1954, the novel is «a unique summation of Mann’s career, revealing the remarkable continuity of his thought about art» (vii-viii). The introduction adds that Mann’s focus on the aesthetics of society and on art’s «involvement in the formation of the self and the community» (4) supplanted his initial theme of crime, deception, and illusion. It also tells how stressing the «highly socialized and sociable nature of Krull’s performances» (4) counters other scholars’ overemphasis on mythological aspects such as his resemblance to Hermes or Narcissus. Among other things, the book would thus show how art and aesthetics in Felix Krull are «constitutive elements of both social life and the life of the mind» (5). Schonfield then gives a preview of his three main chapters: the first treats «the involvement of art in the articulation and cultivation of the self» (5); the second discusses the «interaction and complicity between Bürger and Künstler» (5); the third examines narrative features showing the form of Felix Krull to be a «meta-commentary» on its «thematics» (6). As predicted, chapter 1 tells how Mann’s novel provides «a creatively adaptable model of identity» and «presents art and aesthetics as being central to the development of the individual subject» (9). Krull’s use of theatrical terms, for example, indicates how the novel at once portrays the theater as «a metaphor for human interaction» and offers a «dynamic model of identity» (13). Echoes of Dichtung und Wahrheit reveal how Mann’s own sense of himself as an artist changed as he began to imitate Goethe. In these as well as other ways, Felix Krull experiments with a less pessimistic consciousness, showing us that «building of the self takes place through a process of simulation and copying» (41). By contrast, chapter 2 is about community. Its principal thesis is that Krull is less a con man than a Lebenskünstler. His story may not be directly political, moreover, but it is Mann’s «fullest examination of the role of aesthetics in society» (78). Krull’s pimping for Rozsa suggests that this role is not always benign. The most interesting thing in this chapter is Schonfield’s claim that Mann’s defense of democracy in the Besprechungen / Reviews 275 1920s would not have been possible without the insight, gained during his writing of Felix Krull, that art depends on its audience’s assent. Such assent figures in chapter 3, too. This chapter shows how formal elements of Felix Krull «reinforce its exploration of art’s contribution to both individual identity and community» (131). It is both a Bildungsroman and a Gesellschaftsroman, for example, and its narrator addresses its reader in increasingly intimate terms - though it may be going too far to speak of Krull’s «seduction of the reader» (162). In short, «the narrative mode functions as a correlative of the theme, and as a reflection of it and upon it» (168). Put a different way, the main idea of this chapter is that «in Felix Krull, form mirrors content» (152). The conclusion underscores the importance of the scene in which Felix Krull sees the actor Müller-Rosé backstage, out of costume and out of character. That scene shows art working «not as an imposed illusion, but as a mutually agreed, deliberate pretence,» not as a deception, that is, but as «an imaginative exchange which relies upon an inter-subjective arrangement» (185). Thus implying its reader’s freedom, Mann’s novel harks back to Schiller’s aesthetics. With its emphasis on art, it can also be linked to the «great tradition of German philosophical aesthetics» (186). It lightens or relaxes that tradition; indeed, «its profundity resides in its lightness» (187). In the course of these several chapters, Schonfield draws on various theories and concepts, most notably on Judith Butler’s «performative theory of identity» (44), Walter Benjamin’s description of fascism as «eine Ästhetisierung des politischen Lebens» (121), Susan Sontag’s definition of camp (148), and Roland Barthes’s effet du réel (163). He does so judiciously, noting both the usefulness and the limits of each as it pertains to Mann’s specific case. He is similarly cautious about reading Felix Krull as an example of extreme postmodern notions of the self. Although he often calls the novel ludic, his approach to it is thus admirably eclectic. His study is not perfect, of course. His diction is not always as precise as it could be, his assertions sometimes abut each other rather abruptly, and his quotations are not always sufficiently introduced and interpreted. There are some unnecessary repetitions, moreover, and both art and aesthetics sometimes seem described too broadly. There are also far too many instances of phrases such as «In this section I will argue that […]» or as «What I intend to do here is […].» These phrases may be meant to help readers follow the argument, but when repeated so often they just get in its way. In sum, and despite some minor faults, this book merits its inclusion in both the MHRA and the Bithell dissertation series. Dartmouth College Ellis Shookman K ARIN B AUMGARTNER : Public Voices. Political Discourse in the Writings of Caroline de la Motte Fouqué. North American Studies in Nineteenth-Century German Literature 44. Bern & New York: Peter Lang, 2009. 276 pp. $ 61.95. Karin Baumgartner’s study is a welcome addition to the growing literature on women’s literary and social politics in the early nineteenth century and on Caroline de la