[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-438016-105":59,"doc-detail-438016-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-theme-of-the-joseph-story-festive-address-on-joseph-and-his-brothers","The Theme of the Joseph Story - Festive Address on Joseph and His Brothers","","An address by Thomas Mann delivered at the Library of Congress on November 17, 1942 explores the festive character of art and the literary celebration embedded in the theme of Joseph and His Brothers. Mann frames the discussion against a world of total unity where the boundaries between aesthetic, philosophical, religious, and political spheres collapse. He explains why he turned to the Egyptian Joseph legend, linking his motivation to Goethe’s experience of expanding the Joseph story through narrative execution and “substance.”",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-theme-of-the-joseph-story-festive-address-on-joseph-and-his-brothers/438016/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-theme-of-the-joseph-story-festive-address-on-joseph-and-his-brothers/438016.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Angel","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does Mann consider the festive character of art and literature?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"He argues that art, and especially a literary work whose object is the idea of festival, possesses a celebratory and visualization-like power that neutralizes time and depicts past and future.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does Mann address Joseph and His Brothers despite its personal distance?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"He notes that he was startled by MacLeish’s suggestion, yet insists the era makes little difference what one talks about because everything is connected, and literature can still relate to the great concerns of the time.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What led Mann to transform the biblical legend of the Egyptian Joseph into a novel cycle?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"He explains that after re-reading the story in his old ancestral Bible, he began probing what it would be like to renew and reproduce it with modern narrative means, and he connects his approach to Goethe’s expansion of the Joseph story.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},438016,1791100027,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},687207412472,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","The Themeof the Soscph JAobcls  \nBY  \nTHOMAS MANN  \nFELLOW IN GERMANIC LITERATUREIN THELIBRARY OF CONGRESS  \nWashington·I942  \nThe following is the text of an addressdelivered by Dr.Mann in the CoolidgeAuditorium in the Library of Congresson the evening of November I7,I942.  \nrLadics and GBntemcn  \nT IS,perhaps,not a matter of indifference to those who  \nlisten to an address to know the inner circumstances  \nand the feelings of the speaker standing before hisaudience:a word of personal acknowledgement may haveprecedence here over all factual discourse and account.Letme begin,therefore,with the statement that this is a preciousand great,a festive and stirring hour for me.To speak here,not as a stranger or outsider,but,to a degree,in an officialcapacity,as a member of the staff of the Library of Congress;that is a great honor,a great joy for me:it holds the charmof the improbable and adventurous;a charm to which,asyou know,artists and poets have at all times been particu-larly susceptible.They would not be what they are,if theirview of the play of life was a sober,phlegmatic view,andnot,rather,a marvelling and animated,deeply entertained,a festive view,which knows,just through the medium ofart,how to turn life into spiritually sublimated entertain-ment,and into a festival for others as well.  \nIt is a good and fortunate coincidence that the topic onwhich I want to speak--or,am to speak—is,in itself,afestive topic,not only because all art as such has,or shouldhave,festive character,but because a literary work is to bediscussed whose very object is the idea and the nature ofthe festival:more than that—it is,for its own part,a sortof festive celebration,an observance and visualization,asolemn action which playingly neutralizes time and depictsthe past and the future,the timelessly existing,the myth,asthe present.  \nYou have been told,of course,that I am to speak aboutthe book \"Joseph and His Brothers,\"a tetralogy of novels,or epic in prose,whose final volume,“Joseph the Provider”,is just about to be completed.Let me say first,that I wasquite startled and disconcerted when Archibald MacLeishsuggested this book to me as my topic for tonight,—I wasmuch rather inclined to refuse than to accept.Would itnot seem terribly presumptuous,vain and egocentric,if Italked today,and here,about my own affairs,my ownwork,in other words:about highly personal and privatematters instead of general and important ones,of the greatcares and hopes of our time,of the war and its objectives?And yet,this is a time and a world where it makes almostno difference what we talk about—we always talk aboutone and the same thing.Categories crumble,the borderlinesbetween the different spheres of human thought becomeunessential.Everything is connected with everything else—and,in truth,it has always been so:only,we were not con-scious of it.Once,it was possible to distinguish between a\"purely esthetic,\"\"purely philosophic,\"“purely religious”sphere and the sphere of politics,of human society,of na-tional and international community life,and to declare thatwe were interested in the one but not in the other.Thisis no longer possible.We are interested in the whole,orwe are interested in nothing.“Totalitarian”is an oppressiveword in its strictly political meaning;we do not like tohear it because it signifies the voracious absorption of allthings human by the state.But,then,we are indeed livingin a totalitarian world,a world of totality,of spiritual unityand collective responsibility,before which all sovereigntieshave to abdicate.Unity is the word of the historic hour.The world wants to become one,all the way,into practical  \nreality,down to economic matters.It is a world of infinitelymutual implications,and to talk about belletristic literature,about a novel,is not necessarily insipid infidelity towardthe great and burning concerns of our time,and towardthe plight,the struggle,the longing of humanity.—Of course,it depends a little on the novel  \nI have often been asked what","cbCaiieiuwy45o5K","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiieiuwy45o5K","pdf",2210884,24,"English","# Introductory Remarks\n## Festive Character of Art\n## Joseph and His Brothers as the Topic\n# Context of Modern Life and Unity\n# Mann’s Motivation and Goethe’s Influence","[{\"question\":\"What does Mann consider the festive character of art and literature?\",\"answer\":\"He argues that art, and especially a literary work whose object is the idea of festival, possesses a celebratory and visualization-like power that neutralizes time and depicts past and future.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does Mann address Joseph and His Brothers despite its personal distance?\",\"answer\":\"He notes that he was startled by MacLeish’s suggestion, yet insists the era makes little difference what one talks about because everything is connected, and literature can still relate to the great concerns of the time.\"},{\"question\":\"What led Mann to transform the biblical legend of the Egyptian Joseph into a novel cycle?\",\"answer\":\"He explains that after re-reading the story in his old ancestral Bible, he began probing what it would be like to renew and reproduce it with modern narrative means, and he connects his approach to Goethe’s expansion of the Joseph story.\"}]","The Theme of the Joseph Story - Festive Address on Joseph and His Brothers | PDF",1790683889,37]