SOURCE: Bloch, Adèle. “Mythological Syncretism in the Works of Four Modern Novelists.” International Fiction Review 8, no. 2 (summer 1981): 114-18.

In the following essay, Bloch finds similarities between the main influences on and themes found in the work of Lagerkvist, Thomas Mann, Nikos Kazantsakis, and Jacques Roumain.

In the nineteen forties and fifties while the world was still in the throes of war and social upheaval, four novelists wrote fictional works with similar archetypal themes. Thomas Mann is the senior author as his Joseph Cycle¹ most directly influenced the work of his younger colleagues. The Scandinavian Pär Lagerkvist so closely followed in his footsteps that similar characters and structures can be found throughout his entire opus, from the popular Barabbas² through the Sybil³ and the Holy Land.⁴ The fictional works of the Greek poet Nikos Kazantsakis such as the Greek Passion⁵ and the Last Temptation of Christ⁶ also...