Dante Prado
Thematic Research Area
Department Program
Education
M.A. German – University of Calgary
Licentiate in Foreign Literature – Universidad de Buenos Aires
About
Dante Prado is a PhD Candidate in German Studies. His M.A. thesis at the University of Calgary focused on the cultural meaning of laughter in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg, 1924). His doctoral research analyzes the heightened interest in laughter during the so-called “long nineteenth century.”
Research
Dante’s current research interests include studies on humour, modernism, fin-de-siècle literature, narratives of learning and formation (Bildungsromane), and narrative theory. He is also working with Martin Wagner (University of Calgary) on the project “Against Illustration,” which reconstructs the history of the critique of pictorial illustration in literary texts. The preliminary results of this project are being published here: illustration.ucalgaryblogs.ca.
Publications
2025. “Queering the Benjamenta Institute: Laughter in Robert Walser’s Jakob von Gunten.” Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, vol. 61, no. 1, 21-40, https://doi.org/10.3138/seminar.61.1.2.
2024. “The Crisis of Sociability and Laughter in Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg.” German Life and Letters 77, no. 4, 465–90, https://doi.org/10.1111/glal.12426.
2023. “La obediencia y la perspectiva narrativa en Los años de aprendizaje de Wilhelm Meister” [Obedience and Narrative Perspective in Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship Years]. Exlibris, no. 12, 229—40.
2022. “Laughing with Bergson: Vital Laughter in Thomas Mann’s “Der kleine Herr Friedemann.” Monatshefte 114, no. 4, 598-619, https://doi.org/10.3368/m.114.4.598.
2022. “La perspectiva figural: La relación entre personaje y perspectiva narrativa según el modelo de Wolf Schmid” [The Character-Bound Perspective: The Relation between Character and Narrative Perspective according to Wolf Schmid’s model] Exlibris, no. 11, 24–37.
2020. “Los años de formación de Wilhelm Meister: Tiempo, narración y Bildung” [Wilhelm Meister’s Years of Formation: Time, Narration and Bildung]. Inter Litteras, no. 2, 43–61, https://doi.org/10.34096/interlitteras.n2.9728.
Awards
2024. German Studies Canada’s Best MA Thesis in German Studies (defended in the period 2021-2023).
2024. Elwyn Gregg Memorial Fellowship (UBC).
2021: Language Research Centre (University of Calgary) Fellowship
2021: Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship
2020: Enrollment Planning Envelope Award
2020: Faculty of Graduate (University of Calgary) Studies Scholarship