Tradition in Transition: Generational Conflict and Cultural Disintegration in the Works of Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Thomas Mann

Abstract

This comparative study examines how Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Thomas Mann represent generational conflict and cultural disintegration in response to the upheavals of modernity. Both Nobel laureates explore the alienation of younger generations from inherited traditions, Agnon through the dislocation of Eastern European Jewish life, and Mann through the decline of the German bourgeoisie. The analysis focuses on Agnon’s Only Yesterday, A Guest for the Night, and The Bridal Canopy, and Mann’s Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, and Tonio Kröger. Grounded in Jan Assmann’s theory of cultural memory, Max Weber’s concept of disenchantment, and Karl Mannheim’s generational theory, the paper investigates how both authors use generational estrangement to reflect wider existential and cultural crises. It argues that Agnon and Mann employ generational conflict not merely as a narrative device but as a metaphor for the collapse of collective identity in the modern era. Their works suggest that cultural survival depends not on rigid preservation of the past but on meaningful intergenerational dialogue. The broader implication that emerges is clear: cultural continuity is essential to human belonging, and it must be actively renewed through empathy, memory, and critical engagement between generations in an ever-changing world.