El palimpsesto de La montaña mágica de Thomas Mann en la obra literaria de Juan Benet

Abstract

This article analyzes the influence of The Magic Montain (1924) by Thomas Mann in the narrative of Juan Benet. The author of the cicle of «Región» recognized in his essays and in his interviews that he read this work. Here we are going to discuss such topics as time and its ontology; memory; the dialectics between body and soul; their characters in decline; the eternal return; a fictitious chronotope in decline; the traveler who ascends the mountain of knowledge; the relativism of reality; the concepts of reason, passion, irrationalism and darkness; the relationships between life, arts and intelligence; the analysis of their respective eras in war; the mixture of styles; the fragmentarism; the leitmotivs; and the Spanish topic.