On the contribution of adaptation to originality in Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus and the history of art

Abstract

This article assesses the manner in which the gesture of adaptation affects notions of originality. Through its fluctuations, the adaptive process can generate divergent thinking about the question of originality. Adaptation appears resourceful for the purposes of originality when it produces innovative works of art by modifying adopted sources. At the same time, any claim towards originality can be compromised whenever the exercise of adaptation turns out to be overtly dependent on the adoptive sources. To this extent, in the first part of the essay, Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus is deployed as a means of exploring whether the novel's bid towards originality is undermined by the adaptation ofthe Faust theme. What further limits the novel's effectiveness as an "original" is the possibility that the protagonist ofthe novel, Adrian Leverkiihn, may be perceived as an adaptation of Friedrich Nietzsche's own biography. The second part of this study investigates whether the work, through the adaptation of recurring motifs in the history of art, can bring about original arrangements in works of art.