Gender transubstantiation in Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg

Abstract

The following reading on Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann seeks a new interpretation of this novel from the perspective of gender—like a performative act (Judith Butler)—under the hypothesis that the theme is central in the novel, to the extent that it allows an interpretation that encompasses the various aspects of it; while the subject of gender, according to this same analysis, allows us to rethink the concept of Bildungsroman, like a genre where the same text is included. We speak of transubstantiation since there is in the work an expression of the masculine and the feminine in a binary balance that, although it recognizes homosexuality as something present in the novel and in the formation of the protagonist, it would not opt for it due to that this would affect the vision of a bisexual world implicit in the narration in a sort of alchemy that advocates an indefinable substance in relation to gender. Such a condition also invites a critique of the triumphant and decadent bourgeois heterosexuality of the time where it is evident that gender is more fluctuating than what this society claims.