His Name is Not Tadzio, or Death in Marseilles: Anna Seghers’s Transit
Eckhard Rolz

Abstract
Anna Seghers’s novel Transit was widely praised by critics, especially in the former German Democratic Republic. Heinrich Böll even regards it as the most beautiful novel Anna Seghers ever wrote. A close analysis of the text, however, reveals many lose ends, one-dimensional characters, stereotypical descriptions of people, and subjects who act irrationally and strange. It is a platform for preaching her political views intermixed with Greek Mythology and Christian imagery. In addition, she borrows heavily from Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, but fails to reach the sophistication Mann’s novel exhibits.  Full Article