閱讀剋勞斯·曼 Klaus Mann在小说之家的作品!!! | |||
克劳斯·曼作為托馬斯.曼的長子，剋勞斯.曼很早就開始步入寫作。二十 年代，他成為迷失在都市生活中的新一代德國作傢的代表。三十年代， 他又成為抵製法西斯的文化運動的領袖。他與父親的關係很糟，一部 分是因為父親更卓越的才能，一部分是因為兒子對自己同性戀傾嚮更 自由的表達。不過對於同性戀所持的觀點，剋勞斯.曼並不比托馬斯 .曼更少一些悲觀。在他的自傳《轉折點》（1942）中，剋勞斯.曼 寫道：“作一個局外人是一種難以承受的羞辱。”
剋勞斯.曼與他的姐姐艾麗卡.曼關係非常親密。他甚至稱他們 是孿生姐弟。艾麗卡.曼也是公開的同性戀者和反納粹人士。她有兩 次有名無實的婚姻，一次是跟演員兼導演古斯塔夫.格魯根斯；另一 次是跟英國詩人Ｗ．Ｈ．奧登。奧登也是同性戀者，他們的結合衹是 為了讓艾麗卡曼拿到英國護照，以逃離德國。剋勞斯.曼最著名的小 說《梅菲斯特》（1936）就是以格魯根斯為原型，描寫了一個以扮演 魔鬼梅菲斯特而著名的演員靠投機和出賣自己的靈魂，在納粹權力係 統中升官發達的故事。
在剋勞斯.曼的小說中，同性愛常常是無果而終，無論是把愛情 轉移到異性對象身上（《安雅和伊絲特》，1925），或是屈服於同性 關係的徒勞無果（《亞歷山大》，1930），或是繼續忍受一種孤獨的 存在（《生命前》，1925），末了總是凄慘無望。
在他最樂觀的小說《聖舞》（1926）中，剋勞斯.曼倡導一種由 男性間柏拉圖式情誼，辛勤工作以及未實現的同性愛所構成的烏托邦 景觀。在剋勞斯.曼所處的時代，同性戀往往帶著頽廢的色彩。在 《火山》（1939）中，一個正在萌發的愛情被其中一個年輕男主角的 吸毒給毀壞了。《狂風夜，陰雨晨》（又名為《彼得和保羅》， 1947）是他最公開表現同性戀的小說，在他死時仍未完成。
由於時代的局限性，剋勞斯.曼筆下的同性戀人物總是無法擺脫 作為另類而存在的枷鎖。這些人物往往帶著馬格努斯.赫希費爾德 “第三性”理論的烙印：男同性戀者通常是女性化的藝術傢，而女同 性戀者則是男性化的。他們在中産階級社會觸及不到的地方縱情狂歡， 但也正因此，他們走嚮分崩瓦解。剋勞斯.曼筆下的異性戀者同樣也 是一群邊緣人，他們也墜入各種各樣悲慘的深淵，衹不過不是因為性 取嚮的問題。
不過，剋勞斯.曼小說中的這種悲觀無助與他的非小說作品（如 《安德列.紀德和現代思想的危機》，1943）以及他加入美隊 （作為記者和翻譯）投身反法西斯鬥爭的行為恰成對比。他關於恐同 攻擊的散文《同性戀和法西斯》（1934）被左派用來聲討納粹，已經 成為同性戀權益運動史中的一篇重要論文。
從1933年就開始生涯的剋勞斯曼轉嚮歷史中，尤其是同性戀 者的歷史中尋找小說創作的靈感：《亞歷山大》，《悲愴交響麯》 （1935）， 《鐵窗》（1937）。這些來自同性戀名人榜中的人物── 亞歷山大大帝，柴科夫斯基，和巴伐利亞的路德維希二世──代表著 那些因為愛而與他們身處的社會相背離的人們。
剋勞斯.曼悲觀主義的作品似乎早已預示了他本人的結局。 1949年5月22日，在法國嘎納，剋勞斯.曼服用了過量的安眠藥，結 束了自己疲憊的生命。
長期以來，剋勞斯.曼以及他的許多作品被隱藏在他父親巨大聲 譽的陰影之下。但近年來，評論傢們，尤其是德國的同性戀評論傢們， 通過大量的研究，包括剋勞斯.曼生前日記的整理出版和有關他的一 部傳記，一個更清晰的輪廓呈現了出來，他不應該僅僅因為是大文豪 托馬斯.曼有天賦而又悲劇性的同性戀兒子而被後人記住，他更應該 因為是他自己，剋勞斯.曼，一個德國同性戀作傢，評論傢和活動傢， 而被歷史銘記。
Life and work
Born in Munich, Klaus Mann was the son of German writer Thomas Mann and his wife, Katia Pringsheim. His father was baptized as a Lutheran, while his mother was from a family of secular Jews. He began writing short stories in 1924 and the following year became drama critic for a Berlin newspaper. His first literary works were published in 1925.
Mann's early life was troubled. His homosexuality often made him the target of bigotry, and he had a difficult relationship with his father, who had little respect for him. After only a short time in various schools, he travelled with his sister Erika Mann, a year older than himself, around the world, and visited the US in 1927. In 1924 he had become engaged to his childhood friend Pamela Wedekind, the eldest daughter of the playwright Frank Wedekind, who was also a close friend of his sister Erika. The engagement was broken off in January 1928.
He travelled with Erika to North Africa in 1929. Around this time they made the acquaintance of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, a Swiss writer and photographer, who remained close to them for the next few years. Klaus made several trips abroad with Annemarie, the final one to a writers' congress in Moscow in 1934.
In 1932 Klaus wrote the first part of his autobiography, which was well received until Hitler came to power. In 1933 Klaus participated with Erika in a political cabaret, the Pepper-Mill, which came to the attention of the Nazi regime. To escape prosecution he left Germany in March 1933 for Paris, later visiting Amsterdam and Switzerland, where his family had a house. In November 1934 Klaus was stripped of German citizenship by the Nazi regime. He became a Czechoslovak citizen. In 1936, he moved to the United States, living in Princeton, New Jersey and New York. In the summer of 1937, he met his partner Thomas Quinn Curtiss, who was later a longtime film and theater reviewer for Variety and the International Herald Tribune. Mann became a US citizen in 1943.
During World War II, he served as a Staff Sergeant of the 5th US Army in Italy and in summer 1945 he was sent by the Stars and Stripes to report from Postwar-Germany.
Mann's most famous novel, Mephisto, was written in 1936 and first published in Amsterdam. The novel is a thinly-disguised portrait of his former brother-in-law, the actor Gustaf Gründgens. The literary scandal surrounding it made Mann posthumously famous in West Germany, as Gründgrens' adopted son brought a legal case to have the novel banned after its first publication in West Germany in the early 1960s. After seven years of legal hearings, the West German Supreme Court banned it by a vote of three to three, although it continued to be available in East Germany and abroad. The ban was lifted and the novel published in West Germany in 1981.
Mann's novel Der Vulkan is one of the 20th century's most famous novels about German exiles during WWII.
He died in Cannes of an overdose of sleeping pills. He was buried there in the Cimetière du Grand Jas.
Selected bibliography
* Der fromme Tanz, 1925
* Anja und Esther, 1925
* Revue zu Vieren, 1927
* Kind seiner Zeit, 1932
* Treffpunkt im Unendlichen, 1932
* Journey into Freedom, 1934
* Symphonie Pathétique, 1935
* Mephisto, 1936
* Der Vulkan, 1939
* The Turning Point, 1942
* André Gide and the Crisis of Modern Thought, 1943