Time Wasted: Narcotic Analysis of Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg

While the importance of intoxication to Thomas Mann is often noted in criticism, it is usually discussed in relation to his engagement with Nietzsche's Dionysus and fascism. This article looks to shift this focus: drawing on Derrida's reading of the pharmakon , and Avital Ronell's work on drugs and literary modernity, I read “intoxication” in Der Zauberberg as inclusive of the host of drugs, narcotic drafts, stimulants, depressants, and opiates that the novel features. By examining an indeterminate pharmacologic at work in intoxications and diagnoses of toxicity, I demonstrate the role of intoxication in relation to various historical discourses, and colonial and commercial practices. I also situate Mann's text in relation to the emergence of addiction as a medical and social category. I thus draw attention to intoxication as a crucial dimension of the novel's social and historical vision.