Publisher's Synopsis
Although parody is central to the famous 'encounter with the Devil', the 'ironical German''s novel has generally been held to be anything but parodistic. But if we eschew normative thinking on genres, parodistic writing reveals itself to be highly varied in perspective. It enhances readability and at the same time enables narrative discourse to reflect on the modalities of writing and the potentialities of modern art in the face of the polarity between esotericism and epigonality. Parodistic writing refutes the traditional interpretations of Mann's novel in terms of the role of the artist, a modern-day treatment of the Faust myth, an allegory on society or on Germany. In the 'relational magic' of speech and counter-speech, Leverk|hn's compositions function as self-parodies of the novel.
