Twentieth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper argues that the normative argumentation of democratic political theory finds an invaluable partner in literary fiction. The paper concentrates on Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Mann’s novel revolves around the theme of uncertainty. Humans fear uncertainty. We struggle to create those totems and taboos, in Freud’s terms, that will assumedly assure certainty. In Mann’s novel, inherited social norms are breaking down in the wake of World War I. The world will never be the same. The centerpiece location is a sanitorium for tuberculosis patients on the “magic mountain.” Within our covid-stricken world, uncertainty reigns to our detriment. We profess to be open-minded, yet we discriminate. Fear, rather than reason, governs our actions. Across the globe we see the rise of authoritarianism. The incidence of racism and religious discrimination. The fear of the foreigner. And here Harper Lee’s novel about the injust prosecution of a Black man in America for rape rings a timely bell. In times of emergency, like that of the covid pandemic, we backslide. Within these uncertain times, ambiguity, even contradiction of democratic values, reigns. Ever since Plato’s “Republic,” normative political theorists have employed literary images to enhance their argumentation. Why? This paper argues that the moral questions raised by theorists require empathy and association. These qualities are best provided by the literary imagination.