Fruzsina Nagy
IN: Partitúra Irodalomtudományi folyóirat, Volume XIX. , Issue 1, 2024, page 3-20 , ISSN 1336-7307
DOI: 10.17846/PA.2024.19.1.3-20
Abstract:
Joseph’s story in the Bible is a “well-constructed literary work in its own right”, which has become a reference point for several texts and works of art. Thomas Mann’s great novel stands out among the representations, which undoubtedly has one of the most complex portrayals of Joseph’s character in literature. One of the most significant motifs shared by the biblical story and the novel is the description of the decorative coat given to Joseph by Jacob. In both texts, the “coat of many colors” evokes strong emotional and symbolic meanings in the family network of relationships, in which both aesthetics and the rules of clothing have prominent roles. The Hebrew expression used for garment – ketonet passim – makes it absolutely clear that Israel’s gift is a uniquely designed, elegant piece of clothing whose aesthetic appearance, beyond its use as a tool, is at least as important as following the moral norms that the wearing of the garment entails. Could we even call the multicolored coat – in addition to the symbolic representation of Jewish birthright – an example of high art in fashion history? The paper is concerned with the “interactions” between the coat an the characters who wear it (or who are deprived of this possibility), how they assign meanings to it and how they interact with it accordingly.
