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A contribution to: Melancholy

Edited by Joanna Neilly and Alex Stuart

MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities 6

Modern Humanities Research Association

open

Abstract.  In this paper I examine the theme of melancholy in relation to Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg. I argue that in connection with the very overt subject of physical illness in the novel, specifically the condition of tuberculosis, there is also the theme of melancholy which is evident in the novel’s subject matter, characters and structure. Relating my discussion to the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Julia Kristeva, I argue that the pervading sense of melancholy in Der Zauberberg can be attributed to a sense of loss at a number of levels, including not only concrete losses such as the death or desertion of a loved one, but also abstract losses, such as the loss of hope experienced by the terminally ill. I examine how the loss incurred by the deprivation of meaning in life experienced by the seriously ill can be compounded by further losses experienced through institutional life, such as the loss of dignity, self-respect and a sense of identity, leading in some cases to thoughts of, or actual suicide. In addition I note how the structure of the novel echoes the feeling of disorientation and timelessness experienced by those in a melancholic state, and how a sense of loss continues when the main protagonist, through whose eyes we view the events of the narrative, disappears and most probably dies at end of the novel. This paper relates to a wider exploration of ‘Impotence, Mental Illness and Suicide’ in relation to Mann’s novel, as a chapter of my thesis which relates to ‘Thomas Mann and the Body’, and focuses particularly on issues of the taboo. My work addresses taboo acts and conditions, and the theme of melancholy relates both to the stigmatised condition of mental illness, and the taboo act of suicide.

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