Mit i egzystencja. Czarodziejska góra Tomasza Manna jako powieść antyinicjacyjna?

Abstract

Summary This article presents one of the many possible interpretations of Thomas Mann’s The MagicMountain without drawing an definitive conclusion. Hans Castorp’s experiences at Davos are explored in the context of the ritual of initiation and regeneration featured in Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. In Mann’s novel Castorp’s encounter with the death-tainted sanatorium routine carries a suggestion of an absorption into a community performing its rituals. However, unlike the Nietzschean mysteries these rituals pull its participants into a unregenerative circle of formlessness. In the initiation ritual the descent (kathodos) should be followed by an ascent (anodos). In the Hades of the Berghof Hans Castorp can be seen to dive into the recesses of his own memory, the primeval memory of mankind, the secrets of the human body and the depths of the subconscious. However, his dip does not issue in an ascent. His grip on reality remains at best enigmatic; he is not able to break out of the narrow compass of the sanatorium. When he returns to the plains, to historical time, it is a descent to the hell of war. To sum up, whereas the Dionysian myth is associated with the motif of a fertile underworld, Castorp is not likely to experience regeneration.