ABSTRACT
The present article is divided into three sections: in the first, we give an overview of Thomas Mann’s life, providing some information relevant for the works to be analyzed, especially Doktor Faustus, the novel where Kierkegaard’s work and name is abundantly mentioned. In the second, we survey the sources of Mann’s knowledge of Kierkegaard until the genesis of Doktor Faustus; in particular, we address the omissions of mentions of the name of the Danish thinker in Thomas Mann’s writings until that time, taking into account that in other novels from this period, among them The Magic Mountain and Joseph and his Brothers, one finds clear evidence of a treatment of issues that were commonly debated at this particular moment of the Kierkegaardian reception in Germany. In the third part, we give an account of primary and secondary sources used during the genesis of Doktor Faustus, and we bring forth the presence of Kierkegaard’s thought in the texture of chapter XXV of this novel and in correlated essays or lectures.
