Despite the considerable amount of scholarship on Mann's work his tetralogy - composed prior
to and during his exile from Nazi Germany - has received less attention and has not been
examined from the perspective of the relationship of visuality to narrative. In this study of
Mann's reworking of the biblical account of Jacob father of Joseph the author examines the
ways the novel's protagonists frame their environment through knowledge and meaning gained via
specific acts of seeing. While considering Mann's oft-stated intent to refunctionalize myth by
means of psychology for humane and progressive purposes the book explores the lavish narrative
attention Mann gives to visual detail visual stimulation the protagonists' eyes ways of
seeing and even to staging and performance in anticipation of another's way of seeing. The
results reveal that the plot of the first Joseph novel is carried and propelled by a series of
visual encounters during which the narrative draws attention to the protagonists' eyes and acts
of looking.
