Röntgenstralen tussen wetenschap en kunst in De Toverberg

Abstract

X-rays between art and science in The Magic Mountain. When x-ray, in the early 1900s, was hailed as the new instrument of objective verification and indisputable proof, it signaled the reign of the visual over other senses of empirical verification, such as sound and touch. The extent of visual evidence was believed to be all- encompassing: x-rays were supposedly a sort of super photography that could prove the existence of immaterial substances, the materiality of things heretofore unseen. Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (1924) elaborates on three invisible aspects of the body: the verification of disease (tuberculosis), the visualization of intimate feelings such as love, and the ultimate proof of the spiritual self after death. In all three areas - medical, psychological and metaphysical - the x-ray was thought to be a magical instrument that could render the body (and soul) transparent. The Magic Mountain does not simply reflect these beliefs, but problematizes cultural conceptions inspired by medical-scientific axiomas.