Confidence trick of fiction Talking about self-fiction and roleplays in Thomas Mann's Felix Krull

Abstract

The most important inner text sample of Thomas Mann's Felix Krull as is well known is masquerader Georges Manolescu's autobiography, however which is so far seen in descriptive researches on Thomas Mann it is seen exclusively in a source philological and social historical point of view. Possibly the reason to avoid an expansion of the academic discussion was, that it was seen, according to Thomas Mann's verdict, as a raw structure, at best to be understood as a skit borrowing. Matter in hand this article raises the question if it combines its inner textual treatment with structural elements, which were added fiction into Felix Krull. In consideration of the essential motive of skillful illusion in both masquerader texts, a thesis could be, that it supposes to seem close, that the novel's inner textual references can be seen in a sense of a fictional act. To make these different aspects comprehensible is the research's aim.