The article’s main keystone is a detailed comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg) and Stanislaw Lem’s The Hospital of Transfiguration (Szpital Przemienienia). To achieve this goal the author resorts to the deeply rooted in German literature concept of “bildung.” Moreover, the text outlines the potential possibilities of other interpretations, including the reading of Lem’s novel through the prism of “autobiographical parable” or as a “novel-testimony” attesting the destruction of the insane on the territory of the Polish Republic occupied during the war.
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