Mario und der Zauberer: The Narration of Seduction or the Seduction of Narration?

This article is an attempt to interpret a work of the great ironist, Thomas Mann, in the light of recent concerns with alleged “authoritarian” writing. Such critics as the late Roland Barthes and many advocates of reader theory have called to question traditionally accepted methods of literary persuasion. Such anxiety about coercive rhetoric became acute after the debacle of European fascism when a heinously effective propaganda was able to persuade entire nations to commit outrageous crimes against humanity. Peitho, the once revered Goddess of Persuasion for the Greeks, has become a wicked seductress for many contemporary language sceptics. It is within the context of such concerns with the nature of the persuasive powers of fiction that this article undertakes to analyse Mann's work on and of seduction: Mario und der Zauberer. My major contention is that it is not merely a literary work about fascism but, perhaps more significantly, a disclosure of the latent fascism in literature and all persuasive art. “The sole temple to Peitho is Language” Euripides