A mediocre young man travels from low-lying Hamburg to the highest peaks of the Alps to visit his ailing cousin at a tuberculosis sanatorium for all of three weeks; his sojourn ends up lasting many years longer—and hundreds more pages, filled with hundreds more adventurous questions—than planned. Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain is one of those modernist masterpieces that restricts itself to a singular place and time, yet evidently seeks to encompass whole universes. Set in a bygone Europe that remains stubbornly unaware of the looming Great War, Mann’s epic novel probes what it means to live life on the edge: of the world, of time, of history, of philosophy, of mortality and catastrophe. Generations of readers have been transported to dizzying heights and impenetrable depths as Mann’s curious protagonist, Hans Castorp, explores the enduring mysteries of life and death, health and illness, action and contemplation, progress and tradition, science and mysticism, politics and art, love and obsession. What kind of novel is The Magic Mountain? How can we read something so capacious? What is the meaning of magic, of enchantment, in the modern, disenchanted world?
In this course, we will undertake a close reading of The Magic Mountain and its seemingly infinite facets. Optional supplementary readings, both from Mann himself and from leading scholars and critics, will be made available, but class discussions will focus primarily on the text of the novel itself. While the course will be conducted in English, those who read German are more than welcome to wrap themselves up in Mann’s own unparalleled prose.
This course is available for "remote" learning and will be available to anyone with access to an internet device with a microphone (this includes most models of computers, tablets). Classes will take place with a "Live" instructor at the date/times listed below.
Upon registration, the instructor will send along additional information about how to log-on and participate in the class.
