THOMAS MANN'S «MARIO AND THE MAGICIAN» AND PER LAGERKVIST'S «THE EXECUTIONER» AS TWO MODELS OF WARNING TEXTS

Abstract

This article analyses Thomas Mann’s Mario and the Magician and Pеr Lagerkvist’s The Hangman as cautionary works (warning texts) of the interwar period. The study identifies the key features of the warning narrative (dominant motifs, chronotope, and intertextual dimensions) and interprets these texts as two distinct models of literary diagnostics of emerging totalitarian tendencies. Using anthropological and phenomenological approaches, mythopoetic and comparative scientific methods, and «close reading» techniques, we justify the initial origin of the study of Mann and Lagerkvist's works as two different authorial strategies for constructing a coherent model of potential social collapse. In Lagerkvist’s novella, the allegorical figure of the Hangman personifies a system of power grounded in the normalization of fear and violence. Motifs of institutionalized brutality, collective responsibility, and the banality of evil function as markers of totalitarianism as a social pathology. The chronotope universalizes the narrative: the threat appears ontological, inherent to any civilization that tolerates the erosion of human dignity. This effect is reinforced by parable-like genre features and intertextual references to biblical archetypes such as Cain and Pilate. In contrast, Mann’s novella foregrounds the psychological susceptibility of the masses. The magician Cipolla embodies the charismatic manipulator who subjugates the crowd through suggestion, theatricality, and ritualized humiliation. Here, violence operates not through physical coercion but through the control of human will. The seemingly safe space of the Italian resort becomes a stage for an autocratic experiment, turning everyday life into the medium of political domination. The study concludes that The Hangman exposes the mechanisms of repressive power, whereas Mario and the Magician reveals the psychological conditions that make such power possible. Together, they function as artistic models of cultural diagnosis and fulfil the preventive mission characteristic of warning texts.