LEADER 04302nam 22006132 450 001 9910826085703321 005 20230617005756.0 010 $a94-012-0182-X 010 $a1-4175-9119-6 024 7 $a10.1163/9789401201827 035 $a(CKB)1000000000454001 035 $a(EBL)556874 035 $a(OCoLC)60157366 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000164607 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12003602 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000164607 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10143967 035 $a(PQKB)10268217 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL556874 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10380587 035 $a(nllekb)BRILL9789401201827 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC556874 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000454001 100 $a20200716d2005 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 12$aA Gorgon's Mask $eThe Mother in Thomas Mann's Fiction /$fLewis A. Lawson 210 1$aLeiden; $aBoston :$cBRILL,$d2005. 215 $a1 online resource (438 p.) 225 1 $aPsychoanalysis and Culture ;$v12 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a90-420-1745-7 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aAcknowledgements -- I. Introduction -- II. Early Works -- III. The Magic Mountain -- IV. Mann meets Freud -- V. Joseph and His Brothers -- The Beloved Returns : Lotte in Weimar -- The Transposed Heads -- Joseph the Provider -- VI. Doctor Faustus -- VII. The Holy Sinner -- Confessions of Felix Krull: Confidence Man -- The Black Swan -- Confessions of Felix Krull: Confidence Man -- VIII. Conclusion -- Bibliography. 330 $aThe thesis of A Gorgon's mask: The Mother in Thomas Mann's Fiction depends upon three psychoanalytic concepts: Freud's early work on the relationship between the infant and its mother and on the psychology of artistic creation, Annie Reich's analysis of the grotesque-comic sublimation, and Edmund Bergler's analysis of writer's block. Mann's crisis of sexual anxiety in late adolescence is presented as the defining moment for his entire artistic life. In the throes of that crisis he included a sketch of a female as Gorgon in a book that would not escape his mother's notice. But to defend himself from being overcome by the Gorgon-mother's stare he employed the grotesque-comic sublimation, hiding the mother figure behind fictional characters physically attractive but psychologically repellent, all the while couching his fiction in an ironic tone that evoked humor, however lacking in humor the subtext might be. In this manner he could deny to himself that the mother figure always lurked in his work, and by that denial deny that he was a victim of oral regression. For, as Edmund Bergler argues, the creative writer who acknowledges his oral dependency will inevitably succumb to writer's block. Mann's late work reveals that his defense against the Gorgon is crumbling. In Doctor Faustus Mann portrays Adrian Leverkühn as, ultimately, the victim of oral regression; but the fact that Mann was able to compete the novel, despite severe physical illness and psychological distress, demonstrates that he himself was still holding writer's block at bay. In Confessions of Felix Krull: Confidence Man, a narrative that he had abandoned forty years before, Mann was finally forced to acknowledge that he was depleted of creative vitality, but not of his capacity for irony, brilliantly couching the victorious return of the repressed in ambiguity. This study will be of interest to general readers who enjoy Mann's narrative art, to students of Mann's work, especially its psychological and mythological aspects, and to students of the psychology of artistic creativity. 410 0$aPsychoanalysis and Culture ;$v12. 517 3 $aThe Mother in Thomas Mann's Fiction 606 $aMedicine in Literature 606 $aMothers in literature 606 $aMothers$xpsychology 615 0$aMedicine in Literature. 615 0$aMothers in literature. 615 0$aMothers$xpsychology. 676 $a838.912 700 $aLawson$b Lewis A.$01644474 801 0$bNL-LeKB 801 1$bNL-LeKB 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910826085703321 996 $aA Gorgon's Mask$93990352 997 $aUNINA