Steve Dowden is a Professor of German language and literature in the Department of German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literatures. He graduated in 1984 from the University of California with a Ph.D in German literature. After a decade teaching at Yale and a year as a Humboldt Fellow at the University of Konstanz he joined the Brandeis faculty in 1994. Dowden has published on German literature, art, music, and intellectual history from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. John Burt is the Paul Prosswimmer Professor of American Literature at Brandeis University and the author of the novel A MOMENT’S SURRENDER (Hollywood Books International, forthcoming), three volumes of poetry: THE WAY DOWN (Princeton University Press, 1988), WORK WITHOUT HOPE (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), and VICTORY (Turning Point Press, 2007). His non-fiction book LINCOLN’S TRAGIC PRAGMATISM (Harvard University Press, 2013) was positively reviewed on the front page of the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW. He is the literary executor of the poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren, whose collected poems he edited.In this episode we discuss Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus.--- Become part of the Hermitix community: Hermitix Twitter - ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Hermitixpodcast⁠⁠⁠ Support Hermitix: Patreon - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/hermitix⁠⁠⁠ Donations: - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.me/hermitixpod⁠⁠⁠ Hermitix Merchandise - ⁠⁠⁠http://teespring.com/stores/hermitix-2⁠⁠⁠ Bitcoin Donation Address: 3LAGEKBXEuE2pgc4oubExGTWtrKPuXDDLK Ethereum Donation Address: 0x31e2a4a31B8563B8d238eC086daE9B75a00D9E74