Die »Sympathie mit dem Tode«

Abstract

Following a conceptual intertwining of the history of religions and the history of literature, the Magic Mountain – Thomas Mann’s major project during much of the middle of his life – here will be read as a part of the (modern) history of religions. Linked to the field of the study of literature and religion, the aim is to expand the possibilities of interpreting literature as a historical source with religio-historical value. Being written at a religiously highly productive – and ambiguous – moment of modernity and being highly self-reflective upon its own standing among its contemporaneity, the Magic Mountain is particularly apt to this proposition. As an example of fictional literature, it becomes a subject of research within the study of religion and thus opens historical perspectives.

Keywords

• Religionsgeschichte; Literatur; Entzauberung; Moderne; um 1900