Thomas Mann was an important part of the new Weimar Culture, being one of Germany's leading writers in the 1920s. He wrote a variety of things, including a play, several stories (short and long), a lecture and multiple essays. He is one of the best-known exponents of the Exilliteratur - German literature written in exile by opposers of Hitler's regime.
From 1914 onwards Mann became convinced that he had a public duty to represent the concerns of the German people in his essays and in his fiction. He was a conservative nationalist during World War One, but his political views changed after 1919 and in October 1922 he delivered a speech in support of the Weimar Republic, ‘Von deutscher Republik’; ‘On the German Republic’. Mann publicly opposed Hitler’s rise to power and from 1933 until his death he lived in exile. Mann left Germany on 11 February 1933, shortly after Hitler became chancellor on 30 January 1933. Mann had hoped to return to Germany, but on 16 April 1933 he was denounced by public figures in Munich for having made critical comments about Richard Wagner. Shortly afterwards, in May, his assets were confiscated.
Buddenbrooks
Buddenbrooks was Thomas Mann's first novel, who wrote it from 1897 to June 1901, before being published the following year. It became far more well-known with its second publication in 1903, and was translated into English in 1924 by Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter.
The plot follows the decline of a wealthy German merchant family over several generations, with much of the detail taken directly from Mann's own family history.
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright and theatre practitioner, who is famous for his enormous involvement in Epic Theatre (or Dialectic Theatre, as he later liked to call it) and the 'V. Epic Theatre proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage.
The Shrimp Girl
The Shrimp Girl is a painting by the English artist William Hogarth. It was painted around 1740–45, and is held by the National Gallery, London. [more]
Mr. and Mrs. Andrews
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright and theatre practitioner, who is famous for his enormous involvement in Epic Theatre (or Dialectic Theatre, as he later liked to call it), and coined the phrase of the 'V-effect', which he defined as "playing in such a way that the audience is hindered from simply identifying itself with the characters in the play", the idea being to appeal to their conscious thought rather than subconscious.
Epic Theatre proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage.
Brecht lived in exile during the Nazi regime and actually had his German citizenship taken away from him. He lived in the US during the war before returning to Germany in
Flatford Mill
Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River) is an oil painting by English artist John Constable, painted in 1816. It is Constable's largest exhibition canvas to be painted mainly outdoors, the first of his large "six-foot" paintings [more]
The Fighting Temeraire
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright and theatre practitioner, who is famous for his enormous involvement in Epic Theatre (or Dialectic Theatre, as he later liked to call it) and the 'V-effect', which he defined as .
Epic Theatre proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage.
The Hireling Shepherd
This is a painting by William Holman Hunt, a leading British Pre-Raphaelite.
Ophelia
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright and theatre practitioner, who is famous for his enormous involvement in Epic Theatre (or Dialectic Theatre, as he later liked to call it) and the 'V-effect', which he defined as "playing in such a way that the audience was hindered from simply identifying itself with the characters in the play", the idea being to remain in the audience's conscious thought rather than the subconscious. Brecht lived in exile during the Nazi regime and actually had his citizenship removed, also being a prominent figure in Exilliterature.
Epic Theatre proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage.
The Music Lesson
The Music Lesson or Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman by Jan Vermeer, is a painting of young female pupil receiving the titular music lesson. [more]
