An author like Thomas Mann encourages us to evaluate the influence and dialogue he maintained with key figures in contemporary philosophical thought, such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Lukács. This event proposes an examination of some of Mann's central works through the lens of his stance on conceptual models related to the meaning of art, the role of politics, the ambivalences of culture, and the desirable transformation of contemporary societies.  

Program 

January 27 

"An interval of three tones or the diabolus in Doctor Faustus: Hoffmann, Goethe and Thomas Mann» with Ana Carrasco-Conde.

An analysis of Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus through the lens of the so-called "diabolus in musica" or "devil's note," a three-tone interval associated with the sinister and the forbidden since medieval music. These three notes will thus be seen as representing Goethe's Faust, E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Devil's Elixirs, and Mann's work, amidst tensions and dissonances reminiscent of Schoenberg.

«An artistic and musical conception of the world: reflections by Thomas Mann» with Nemesio García-Carril Puy.

Knowing and understanding the world, which appears chaotic to our senses, has been a yearning of humankind since its origins. Scientific and intellectual understanding occupies a preeminent place in our attempts to satisfy this desire. However, the history of humanity reveals the existence of alternative perspectives on understanding. Thomas Mann advocated for an artistic understanding of the world that took into account the affective and experiential dimensions of human existence. Drawing on his reflections on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, this paper will explore Thomas Mann's defense of this perspective, in which truth and beauty, understood in a modern sense, are intertwined in a relationship of dependence, and in which art, especially music, plays a fundamental cognitive role. 

Moderator: Antonio Rivera García

January 28

"Thomas Mann and Romantic Irony" with Isabel García Adánez.

Thomas Mann is one of literature's great ironists, and although in Spain his work isn't so readily associated with humor, it's constantly filled with narrative playfulness and stylistic games that preclude dogmatic interpretation and a passive attitude from the reader. In this demand for attention and the imposition of critical thinking, Mann also proves to be a clear heir to Romanticism. He connects with the Romantics not only in the thematization of the conflict between life and art, but also in the ideal of education through aesthetics, which originated with Schiller and later led to Schlegel and Jean Paul, for whom (Romantic) irony plays a key role. Irony as a means of developing critical thinking hasn't lost an iota of its modernity over the centuries. On the contrary, Mann's stance reveals itself more than ever as an ideal tool for confronting a world where it's common to accept any artifice without question or effort.

Moderator: Antonio Rivera García