Moral disgust in Klaus Mann's Mephisto and Goethe's Faust

Abstract

This thesis investigates the presence and effects of moral emotions within Klaus Mann's Mephisto (1936) and Goethe's Faust (1808) with a focus on moral disgust as understood through the theories of P. Rozin and J. Haidt. The thesis also investigates the intertextual links between Goethe's Faust and Klaus Mann's Mephisto, namely the presence of the katabasis and anabasis motifs found in classical literature. This is undertaken with the aim to highlight the use of moral emotions as a novel approach to the study of literature. The Faust legend features an important moment when the Faust figure enters into a deal with the devil in hopes of gaining some transitory reward in exchange for his soul, with Goethe's Faust being the most popular rendition of the German Faust legend. It is a play that depicts the life of a restless scholar who enters into a pact with a demon named Mephistopheles in the promise that Faust will receive pleasure without satisfaction. Shortly after the National Socialists came into power in Germany in 1933, Klaus Mann would write his own interpretation of the Faust motif in response to the Nazi reign. Klaus Mann's Mephisto details the meteoric rise of the stage-actor Hendrik Höfgen who makes a 'deal with the devil' by collaborating with the Nazi elite in order to further his own acting career. Mephisto is devoid of any supernatural elements; this thus removes any supernatural influence on the actions of the Nazis and the protagonist Höfgen. The moral emotion of disgust, and thus also self-directed disgust and self-knowledge, eventually saves Faust, but there is no divine force to redeem Höfgen, nor is there an actual devil or demon to blame.