„Stierkampf in Bayonne“ – Corrida in Lissabon

Abstract

Two bold descriptions of bullfighting in German literature – a section of Kurt Tucholsky’s Ein Pyrenäenbuch and the final episode of Thomas Mann’s Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull – can be read in the context of French authors who (about the 1920 s and 1930s) were fascinated by the corrida and the idea of abject sacredness and transgres­sion. The comparison of striking motives (e. g., the art of the matador, the suffer­ing of the horses) reveals how literary texts reflect the ritual character of bullfighting, represent its disgusting aspects, and deal with the taurobolic “scandalon” of death and eros. Whereas Tucholsky encounters a trivial spectacle and nevertheless feels the attrac­tion of violence, Thomas Mann’s narrator is confronted with mythic thought (Mithras) and Dionysiac excess.