Mann's Magic Mountain: Afterlives and Alternatives In brief Date - 21 October 2025Venue - Online via ZoomSpeaker - Dr Karolina Watroba (German Studies, University of Edinburgh) Reserve your free spot About the eventThis talk will show how Thomas Mann's landmark German modernist novel "Der Zauberberg" ("The Magic Mountain", 1924) has developed something of a cult following among non-academic readers around the world over the course of the past century.Moving from interwar Germany and Soviet Russia to present-day Hollywood and Japan, it will analyse how and why various readers - from tuberculosis sufferers to prisoners of war and beyond - made Mann's book their own.Presenting a case study in a cluster of issues central to the interrelated fields of transnational German studies, comparative literature, and reception theory, the talk will discuss the global circulation of German modernism, popular afterlives of a canonical work, access to cultural participation, relationship between so-called 'high-brow' and 'low-brow' culture, and the limitations of traditional academic reading practices.About the speakerDr. Karolina Watroba is a Lecturer in German Studies at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Previously she was a Fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford and a Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala.She researches modern literature, film, and culture, specialising in European modernism and its global reception and continuing relevance today. She works across several languages, including German, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Korean.She is the author of "Mann's Magic Mountain: World Literature and Closer Reading" (Oxford: OUP, 2022), which was a Waterloo Centre for German Studies Book Prize finalist, and "Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka" (London: Profile, 2024), which was an "Economist" Book of the Year.How to attendThis event is open to all, and free to attend. It is an online event, and you can reserve your spot for free via Brandeis University's website. Reserve your free spot Are you interested in studying German at Edinburgh?Our four-year undergraduate programmes can be taken by students who have studied the language at school and also by complete beginners, with classes streamed in Year 1 according to how much prior experience you have.We also offer a Masters by Research and PhD in German, and a range of interdisciplinary taught masters programmes. Find out more about studying German at Edinburgh Tags European Languages and Cultures German Oct 21 2025 12.30 - 14.00 Mann's Magic Mountain: Afterlives and Alternatives An online lecture by Dr Karolina Watroba (German Studies, University of Edinburgh) about the non-academic following of Thomas Mann's landmark German modernist novel "Der Zauberberg". Online (via Zoom) Reserve your free spot
Mann's Magic Mountain: Afterlives and Alternatives In brief Date - 21 October 2025Venue - Online via ZoomSpeaker - Dr Karolina Watroba (German Studies, University of Edinburgh) Reserve your free spot About the eventThis talk will show how Thomas Mann's landmark German modernist novel "Der Zauberberg" ("The Magic Mountain", 1924) has developed something of a cult following among non-academic readers around the world over the course of the past century.Moving from interwar Germany and Soviet Russia to present-day Hollywood and Japan, it will analyse how and why various readers - from tuberculosis sufferers to prisoners of war and beyond - made Mann's book their own.Presenting a case study in a cluster of issues central to the interrelated fields of transnational German studies, comparative literature, and reception theory, the talk will discuss the global circulation of German modernism, popular afterlives of a canonical work, access to cultural participation, relationship between so-called 'high-brow' and 'low-brow' culture, and the limitations of traditional academic reading practices.About the speakerDr. Karolina Watroba is a Lecturer in German Studies at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Previously she was a Fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford and a Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala.She researches modern literature, film, and culture, specialising in European modernism and its global reception and continuing relevance today. She works across several languages, including German, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Korean.She is the author of "Mann's Magic Mountain: World Literature and Closer Reading" (Oxford: OUP, 2022), which was a Waterloo Centre for German Studies Book Prize finalist, and "Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka" (London: Profile, 2024), which was an "Economist" Book of the Year.How to attendThis event is open to all, and free to attend. It is an online event, and you can reserve your spot for free via Brandeis University's website. Reserve your free spot Are you interested in studying German at Edinburgh?Our four-year undergraduate programmes can be taken by students who have studied the language at school and also by complete beginners, with classes streamed in Year 1 according to how much prior experience you have.We also offer a Masters by Research and PhD in German, and a range of interdisciplinary taught masters programmes. Find out more about studying German at Edinburgh Tags European Languages and Cultures German Oct 21 2025 12.30 - 14.00 Mann's Magic Mountain: Afterlives and Alternatives An online lecture by Dr Karolina Watroba (German Studies, University of Edinburgh) about the non-academic following of Thomas Mann's landmark German modernist novel "Der Zauberberg". Online (via Zoom) Reserve your free spot
Oct 21 2025 12.30 - 14.00 Mann's Magic Mountain: Afterlives and Alternatives An online lecture by Dr Karolina Watroba (German Studies, University of Edinburgh) about the non-academic following of Thomas Mann's landmark German modernist novel "Der Zauberberg".
