ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at that artistic phenomenon called “ideal-typical presentation.” The artistic phenomenon can be best characterized by the term Ideal-Typical Presentation, to use a social scientific concept. The chapter illustrates the presence and development of the figure of the Jewish intellectual as the quintessential stranger in Thomas Mann’s life-work, and its function in his fictional Burgerliche world. The artistic realization of the outsider theme is more accomplished and yields more details in Mann’s next work, Konigliche Hoheit. Thomas Mann once remarked that a “striking phenomenon” as the Jewish element in the cultural life of his time well deserved emphasis and attention. A few words should be said about another aspect of Naphta which has much to do with how the others perceive him as well as with Thomas Mann’s perception of the Jewish intellectual and of Georg Lukacs, whose several traits went into the portrayal.
