Artificial I's - The Self as Artwork in Ovid, Kierkegaard, and Thomas Mann

This study explores three works in which the protagonist undertakes to fashion a literary artwork out of himself: Ovid''s »Ars Amatoria«, Kierkegaard''s »Diary of the Seducer«, and Thomas Mann''s »Felix Krull«. For each work, particular attention is paid to the self-conscious interplay between the author''s project of book-making and the character''s project of self-making, as well as to the effect of changing notions of self-identity on the protagonist''s attempt at life as literature. For »Felix Krull«, this includes a sustained analysis of Mann''s incorporation and problematization of various Nietzschean models of aesthestics, reality, and self-identity. In Ovid and Kierkegaard, this study also considers a related project, the attempt to fashion a literary artwork out of another, namely out of a woman.