Thomas Mann's early novella
Tonio Kröger(1903) ranks amongst his most popular narratives. Written over a period of two years and regarded by the author himself as his “favorite literary child” (“literarisches Lieblingskind”), the text's central theme is the antagonism between life and art, an antagonism that also plays a major role in some of Mann's previous works. This can be seen in the novella
Der kleine Herr Friedemann[
Little Herr Friedemann, 1897], where a crippled outsider escapes into the realm of art to avoid life. In the novel
Buddenbrooks(1901) the renunciation of a bourgeois existence is coupled with life-negating aestheticism and death. Art and life are also diametrically opposed in Mann's novella
Tristan, published in the same year as
Tonio Kröger. In
Tristan…
1162 words
Citation: Mundt, Hannelore G.. "Tonio Kröger". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11468, accessed 23 November 2024.]
