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A Montanha Mágica: um romance para o nosso tempo
The Magic Mountain: a novel for our time
Event by: Goethe-Institut Portugal
Location: Goethe-Institut Lisboa, Campo dos Mártires da Pátria 37, Lisboa
About event
Beloved by readers and admired by critics, the novel The Magic Mountain is often considered Thomas Mann's magnum opus. Regardless of this judgment, it is undeniable that the story of Hans Castorp, whose fate, after a seven-year stay in an Alpine sanatorium, culminates in the First World War, is intertwined with the ups and downs of European and world history in the first quarter of the 20th century. The same could be said about the writer himself, who, judging by his essays and letters between 1912 and 1924, underwent a profound metamorphosis when writing the work. That said, what does this novel have to tell us today, roughly a century after its publication?
It is this question, as well as the historical, political and technological aspects of Thomas Mann's novel, that João Pedro Cachopo addresses this in his recently published book, The Scandal of Distance: a reading of The Magic Mountain for the 21st century, published by Tinta-da-China. The starting point is a reflection on the advantages and disadvantages of distance for thinking. Is distance — symbolized by the mountain — an incentive to reflection? Or will it be a pretext for inaction, giving up and cowardice? And what would be the alternative? A return to business and plains warfare? What does good distance consist of?
To discuss these issues and the novel's current status, we propose a debate between João Pedro Cachopo and António Sousa Ribeiro, the author of the most recent Portuguese translation of the novel, published by Relógio d'Água in 2019.
António Sousa Ribeiro is a retired professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra and a researcher at the Center for Social Studies. Throughout his career as a teacher and researcher, he held several management positions, both at the Faculty of Arts and at CES. He has published extensively on topics of German-speaking literature (with a special focus on Karl Kraus and Viennese modernity), comparative literature, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, memory studies and violence studies. He is also dedicated to literary translation, having been awarded the 2017 National Translation Prize for the Portuguese translation of Os Últimos Dias da Humanidade, by Karl Kraus. In addition to Karl Kraus, he translated, among other authors, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Hermann Broch, Jenny Erpenbeck, Rainer Werner Fassbinder Peter Handke, Elfriede Jelinek, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, Thomas Mann, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and W.G. Sebald.
João Pedro Cachopo teaches Philosophy of Music at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where he is a member of the Center for Studies in Sociology and Musical Aesthetics and a collaborator at the Nova Institute of Philosophy. His interests, especially in the fields of musicology and philosophy, include the impact of the digital revolution on contemporary culture, the relationship between the arts and issues of performance and dramaturgy. He is the author of Callas and His Doubles (Solar System, 2023), The Twist of the Senses (Solar System, 2020; Elefante, 2021), translated into English as The Digital Pandemic (Bloomsbury, 2022), and Truth and Enigma: Essay on Adorno's Aesthetic Thought (Vendaval, 2013), which received the PEN Clube Português Award in the First Work category in 2014. Among other works, he co-edited Rancière and Music (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). He translated Georges Didi-Huberman, Jacques Rancière and Theodor W. Adorno into Portuguese.
It is this question, as well as the historical, political and technological aspects of Thomas Mann's novel, that João Pedro Cachopo addresses this in his recently published book, The Scandal of Distance: a reading of The Magic Mountain for the 21st century, published by Tinta-da-China. The starting point is a reflection on the advantages and disadvantages of distance for thinking. Is distance — symbolized by the mountain — an incentive to reflection? Or will it be a pretext for inaction, giving up and cowardice? And what would be the alternative? A return to business and plains warfare? What does good distance consist of?
To discuss these issues and the novel's current status, we propose a debate between João Pedro Cachopo and António Sousa Ribeiro, the author of the most recent Portuguese translation of the novel, published by Relógio d'Água in 2019.
António Sousa Ribeiro is a retired professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra and a researcher at the Center for Social Studies. Throughout his career as a teacher and researcher, he held several management positions, both at the Faculty of Arts and at CES. He has published extensively on topics of German-speaking literature (with a special focus on Karl Kraus and Viennese modernity), comparative literature, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, memory studies and violence studies. He is also dedicated to literary translation, having been awarded the 2017 National Translation Prize for the Portuguese translation of Os Últimos Dias da Humanidade, by Karl Kraus. In addition to Karl Kraus, he translated, among other authors, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Hermann Broch, Jenny Erpenbeck, Rainer Werner Fassbinder Peter Handke, Elfriede Jelinek, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, Thomas Mann, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and W.G. Sebald.
João Pedro Cachopo teaches Philosophy of Music at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where he is a member of the Center for Studies in Sociology and Musical Aesthetics and a collaborator at the Nova Institute of Philosophy. His interests, especially in the fields of musicology and philosophy, include the impact of the digital revolution on contemporary culture, the relationship between the arts and issues of performance and dramaturgy. He is the author of Callas and His Doubles (Solar System, 2023), The Twist of the Senses (Solar System, 2020; Elefante, 2021), translated into English as The Digital Pandemic (Bloomsbury, 2022), and Truth and Enigma: Essay on Adorno's Aesthetic Thought (Vendaval, 2013), which received the PEN Clube Português Award in the First Work category in 2014. Among other works, he co-edited Rancière and Music (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). He translated Georges Didi-Huberman, Jacques Rancière and Theodor W. Adorno into Portuguese.