Joseph and his brothers

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The novel - tetralogy Joseph and his brothers , published between 1933 and 1943, is the most extensive novel by Thomas Mann . Inspired by a trip to Palestine in 1925, the author began writing in 1926 in Munich . The first two volumes were published by S. Fischer in Berlin . The novel was completed 16 years later, in 1943, in exile in California .

Bindings of the first editions

The tetralogy includes the novels:

  1. The stories of Jacob (date of origin: December 1926 - October 1930)
  2. The young Joseph (date of origin: January 1931 - June 1932)
  3. Joseph in Egypt (Date of origin: July 1932 - 23 August 1936)
  4. Joseph the breadwinner (date of creation: August 10, 1940 - January 4, 1943).

Suggestions, role models

“Joseph and his brothers” began as a novel-like formulation of the biblical story of Jacob (Thomas Mann writes “Jaakob”), favorite son Joseph and his life path ( Genesis 37-50). Thomas Mann drew the inspiration for the work from Johann Wolfgang Goethe's autobiographical work “ Poetry and Truth ”. In their fourth book, Goethe writes about the biblical story: "This natural story is extremely graceful, it just seems too short, and one feels called to paint it out in detail."

The stories of Jacob

The first edition appeared in October 1933 by S. Fischer in Berlin . After taking power , Thomas Mann and his family settled in Küsnacht on Lake Zurich on September 27, 1933 ; his books were able to appear in Germany until the Fischer publishing house emigrated .

"The well of the past is deep." With these words begins the prelude to the tetralogy, which is entitled "Descent into Hell". The stories of Jacob begin at the well and in the night . Here the aged Jacob meets seventeen-year-old Joseph, the darling of his twelve sons. Joseph appears before us as a handsome, lively, but also vain moonlover. Father Jacob is worried that he will be found at the bottom of the well and half naked. He asks why Joseph is not with his brothers. To his sorrow he has to hear that his preferred child has been called "Laffe und Hürchen" by one of the brothers. The fratricidal dispute that will culminate in the sale of young Joseph to Egypt has begun.

The encounter between father and son gives the occasion for a comprehensive review of Jacob's life: We learn how he cheated his slightly older twin brother Esau of his father's blessing and thus the right to birthright. Fearing his brother's anger and vengeance, Jacob flees to Haran . There he works with his uncle Laban and falls in love with his daughter Rahel. When he asked for her hand, Laban made him work for him for seven years before he was allowed to marry Rachel. When the wedding was finally celebrated at the end of this time, it turned out for Jacob the next morning that Laban had cheated on him: he had brought his older daughter Lea in veil to him. Jacob has to serve his uncle again for seven years so that he can marry Rahel too.

While the sons that Jacob and Leah are growing up, Rachel remains sterile. Just as Hagar's maid once bore a son to Abraham, so Bilhah and Silpah the maidservants bear Jacob's sons. He already has ten children, when Rahel finally gives birth to Joseph, the very old Jaakob long desired child with the “right one”, finally the “right” son: Joseph, also Jaschup - which means something like increase and increase. As a reference to the Most High, the parents also name him Jehoseph .

During the years in Laban's service, Jacob grows rich, returns to Canaan, and is reconciled with Esau.

The young Joseph

  • The second volume describes the vanities and the as yet undefined sense of mission of the young, spoiled Joseph. Because of the hatred he has nurtured in his brothers, they sell him to traders who take him to Egypt. Joseph has become a slave.

The patriarch Jaakob fondles Joseph as his favorite child. In return, he informs the father of the misdeeds of his half-brothers. Joseph is devoted only to his full brother Benjamin, whose birth Jacob's great love Rachel died. Joseph chatted off a valuable garment from his father, which symbolized his birthright . Joseph is not the firstborn, but he is the first child of Rachel, the woman Jacob loved above all else. Then he proclaims his lofty dreams to the brothers with much self-love. Their resentment grows so much that they move their flocks to the distant Shekem . Joseph is sent after them by the Father in the silent hope that the brothers will be reconciled. When Joseph presented himself to them on his arrival in the recently obtained magnificent robe and pretended he was coming on his father's behalf to control them, the brothers can no longer suppress their accumulated anger. They all attack him and beat him up, throw him into a dry cistern, let him languish there for three days and on the fourth day sell him as a slave to passing Ishmaelite traders whose caravan is on the way to Egypt.

Joseph in Egypt

  • The third volume, "Joseph in Egypt", is the most extensive novel in the tetralogy, the plot of which is described in only 22 verses in the Bible. He describes Joseph's career in the house of Potiphar and the conflict with Potiphar's wife, which ultimately escalates and leads to Joseph being jailed in Egypt.

Joseph comes to Egypt as a slave and a commodity for the Ishmaelites, where the houseman Mont-Kaw acquires him as a slave for the household of Potiphar (usually called Peteprê in the novel ). Remembering his " death " and three-day "burial" in the well, Joseph calls himself in Egypt " Osarsiph ", "Joseph the Osiris ", as the dead are addressed according to Egyptian custom. He died his old life, safe for father and family in the timelessness of death.

Joseph's eloquence, skill and dazzling appearance all helped him quickly to rise. After Mont-Kaw's death, he succeeds him in the office of house dairyman. Under Joseph's skilful direction, the household flourishes and Potiphar's prosperity grows.

Potiphar himself was castrated as a child by his parents, the siblings Huij and Tuij. In this way her son was cleansed of the stain of sibling marriage and opened a career as a courtier for him. As the grand eunuch of the pharaoh, one of the most powerful court envelopes, tower-like in shape, majestic in his appearance, he is serious and closed. Just as he is only fit for form as a eunuch for marriage, his court offices are also basically empty titles. With a mighty physique and magnificent titles, Potiphar is dependent on the protection and discretion of those around him.

Ms. Potiphar, whose name Mut-em-Enet - in contrast to the Bible - we are allowed to find out in the Joseph novel, is understandably disappointed by her incomplete marriage. Over the course of three years, Mut-em-Enet approaches Josef more and more openly, driven by her unfulfilled desire, which becomes more and more mad and finally breaks out bluntly. The story culminates in the familiar bedroom scene; Joseph flees and leaves his upper garment with Potiphar's wife.

After his return, Potiphar sentenced the falsely accused Joseph to prison. For the second time Joseph drives "into the pit".

Joseph the breadwinner

Publisher's cover ( Hugo Steiner-Prag ) of the first print in 1943
  • “Joseph the breadwinner” closes the tetralogy. Joseph succeeds in interpreting Pharaoh's dream of the seven fat and lean cows and the seven full and empty ears of corn. In the conversation that follows, the God-King recognizes - in Thomas Mann's Joseph story , Amenophis IV./Echnaton takes on the role of Pharaoh - in Joseph he is his equal and makes the prisoner his deputy. Joseph is entrusted with the taxation of the land of Egypt and its storage.

The identification of the Pharaoh in the Joseph novel with Akhenaten is important for Thomas Mann from a narrative and dramaturgical point of view, because it enables him to draw a parallel to Abraham's belief in one God and thus to later Jewish monotheism .

By skillfully reorganizing the country, Joseph not only collects sufficient supplies to compensate for periodic famines, he also succeeds in subjugating the self-confident nobility to the Pharaoh. When there was a particularly long-lasting famine, the surrounding peoples were able to survive thanks to Joseph's provisions. Joseph's brothers are also forced to come to Egypt to buy grain. After some joke with the formerly hostile brothers, the powerful deputy Pharaoh reveals himself and forgives them. Jacob and his followers, the people of Israel, are allowed to settle in the land of Goshen .

interpretation

The biblical tradition as reflected in the Joseph novel

The Bible reproduces the story of Joseph within the tradition of the patriarchs Abraham , Isaac and Jacob. The sagas and narratives of the founders of the Yahweh cult - perhaps originally told independently of each other - are skillfully summarized in literary terms through family relationships between the people: Abraham is Lot's uncle , Isaac is Jacob's father, Jacob and Esau are brothers.

In Thomas Mann's portrayal, the biblical characters embody types rather than individuals: there is always a foreman of the patriarch, to whom “the earth leaps towards”. This servant is always called Eliezer , after the first servant who bore this name and who went to look for a bride for his master. In the biblical person (and also in the fictional character) many individuals flow together to form the ideal image of the servant. In the same way the patriarch, with whom the promise is, and on whom the blessing of God rests, is formed from many individuals.

In contrast to the cyclical worldview of the Babylonian and partly also biblical culture, Thomas Mann's tetralogy ends with the main character in the " well of the past " becoming darkened and indistinct . The man on whom the blessing of God visibly rested has children, but these arise in the culture of their Egyptian environment and carry the divine promise just as little further as they continue the nomadic way of life of their forefathers. Thus, in contrast to the linear understanding of history in the Bible, the future is not open in Thomas Mann's epic.

Joseph, beauty, death

The physical beauty and the winning nature of Joseph, his colorful clothing and the tendency to vanity and self-admiration show parallels to other characters in the novel by Thomas Mann, such as Tadzio in “Death in Venice” or Felix Krull - also in their homoerotic tendency.

The parallels to the Babylonian fertility cult of Tammuz are clearly expressed. Like the Middle Eastern shepherd god, Joseph drives " into the pit " in the novel . The event is reinforced by its doubling in importance: Joseph “ dies ” for the first time when the brothers throw him into the well. The associations with the grave and the womb are openly expressed in the novel. After his resurrection, the young Joseph changed, he became more self-critical, more demanding and more cunning. For the second time, Joseph climbs into the tomb during his captivity in Egypt, this time into prison. Both times God's blessing ensures that Joseph can " lift up his head " again .

But - unlike in the Bible - Joseph does not become a patriarch, he does not continue the tradition of the Hebrews. The birthright and the hereditary blessing of Jacob are passed on to the fourth eldest of the brothers: Judah , whom his daughter-in-law Thamar against his will makes the progenitor of the family from which King David and Jesus later descend. So Joseph does not belong to the ancestors of Jesus ; Despite their Hebrew names, his children, whom the novel deals with strangely briefly, are Egyptians and no longer bearers of promise. Here ends the biblical and literary parallel to similar characters (King David, Jesus), to which Thomas Mann's novel alludes repeatedly. For Joseph, unlike Tammuz, there is no rebirth in spring, the blender is sterile, the beautiful one is devoted to death. This is a core idea in Thomas Mann's oeuvre.

reception

According to his own testimony, Thomas Mann found stability and steadiness in the continuous work on the books in the bloody years of the Second World War .

A parallel between Joseph the breadwinner and Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal was seen and appreciated in the United States at the time the novel was written .

The fact that Mann dealt so persistently with a subject from the Jewish tradition, of all things, during the time of National Socialism , contributed significantly to the respect that the author and his work were shown in the State of Israel shortly after the Second World War.

Mann's convincing “text-critical” or “literary” interpretation of the Joseph story may in turn have influenced theological research.

Golo Mann (1978)

Golo Mann , who recognized the value of some of his father's works, such as B. Tonio Kröger , who judged skeptically, gave Joseph and his brothers the rank of Iliad and Odyssey . So Marcel Reich-Ranicki in memory of a conversation with Golo Mann, communicated in the television program Das Literarisches Quartett on August 17, 2005. The little-read Joseph volumes are considered by well-known Thomas Mann researchers as his main work.

A six-hour stage version by John von Düffel premiered in February 2009 at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus . The theater critics rated Thomas Mann's epic Josephs poetry as an oriental-cheerful counter-draft to Richard Wagner's gloomy Nordic Nibelung myth , following recent German research ( Eckhard Heftrich , Dieter Borchmeyer ).

Josef and his brothers - The Touched , sixth “main piece” of the third volume Joseph in Egypt , was premiered in a stage version by Herbert Schäfer on December 5, 2013 in the Theater in der Josefstadt .

Text output

Historical-critical edition

  • Joseph and his brothers I. Text and commentary. Large Commented Frankfurt Edition, Volume 7.1 and 7.2. Edited by Jan Assmann , Dieter Borchmeyer and Stephan Stachorski. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, text volume ISBN 978-3-10-048328-7 , commentary volume ISBN 978-3-10-048329-4.
  • Joseph and his brothers II. Text and commentary. Large Annotated Frankfurt Edition, Volume 8.1 and 8.2. Edited by Jan Assmann, Dieter Borchmeyer and Stephan Stachorski. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, text volume ISBN 978-3-10-048331-7 , commentary volume ISBN 978-3-10-048332-4.

Reading outputs

Paperback edition in four separate volumes, published 1991:

literature

  • Jan Assmann: Thomas Mann and Egypt. Myth and monotheism in the Joseph novels. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54977-2 .
  • Maurice Blanchot : Thomas Mann's 'Joseph and his brothers' . In: Ders .: Thomas Mann. Encounters with the Demon , edited and translated from French by Marco Gutjahr, Turia + Kant, Vienna / Berlin 2017, pp. 9–15, ISBN 978-3-85132-839-4 .
  • Gregor Eisenhauer: A pickpocket of the heart . On the art form of witty speech in Thomas Mann's Joseph novel. Literature Yearbook NF 32: 217-250, 1991
  • Bernd-Jürgen Fischer: Handbook to Thomas Mann's "Joseph novels". Francke, Basel 2002, ISBN 3-7720-2776-8 .
  • Friedemann W. Golka : Joseph - biblical figure and literary figure: Thomas Mann's contribution to Bible exegesis. Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7668-3788-5 .
  • Käte Hamburger : Thomas Mann's Biblical Work. The Joseph novel, the Moses story “The Law”. Nymphenburger Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-485-01862-7 .
  • Eckhard Heftrich: Dreamed deeds. "Joseph and his brothers" Frankfurt 1993, ISBN 978-3-465-02542-9 .
  • Jürgen Hohmeyer: Thomas Mann's novel "Joseph und seine Brüder" studies on a mixed narrative situation (=  Marburg contributions to German studies. Vol. 2). Elwert, Marburg 1965 & 1969 (Diss. Marburg 1964).
  • Axel Hutter: Narrative Ontology. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, ISBN 978-3-16-155397-4 .
  • Hermann Kurzke : moon walks. A guide through Thomas Mann's Joseph novel. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-16011-1 .
  • Vladimir Tumanov: “Stitching Joseph's Coat in Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers.” Neophilologus 84 (2): 255-270, 2000, doi: 10.1023 / A: 1004525900985 .

Web links

Wikibooks: Thomas Mann's statement on the epic as an art form in Joseph and his brothers.  - Learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Genesis 37  EU
  2. ↑ Ulrike Gondorf: Thomas Mann for the theater - premiere of "Joseph and his brothers" in Düsseldorf. Criticism. In: deutschlandfunkkultur.de . February 15, 2009, accessed July 26, 2020.
  3. ↑ Marion Meyer: First performance: "Joseph and his brothers" on the theater stage. A theatrical review that emphasizes the technical aspects. In: wz.de . February 11, 2009, accessed July 28, 2020.