Philip Kitcher
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231162647
- eISBN:
- 9780231536035
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231162647.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter considers whether Thomas Mann was uncertain about the death of Gustav van Aschenbach in Death in Venice. It argues that the problem he faced could not have been that of deciding if ...
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This chapter considers whether Thomas Mann was uncertain about the death of Gustav van Aschenbach in Death in Venice. It argues that the problem he faced could not have been that of deciding if Aschenbach should die but rather how. The difficulty was to discover the right death for his protagonist, a death that would show what it—and the life that preceded it—meant. Mann allows his readers more than one possibility for Aschenbach's death. Once he reveals that cholera is rampant in Venice, the threat of death is omnipresent, and he supplies a few clues consistent with the conclusion that his protagonist is infected with the dry form of the disease. Yet by presenting this death as so atypical of cholera sicca, he invites us to explore alternatives to what initially appears as the most obvious cause. The chapter also examines Luchino Visconti's film Morte a Venezia, and how he replaced the writer von Aschenbach with a composer of the same name, a composer plainly modeled on—if not identical with—Gustav Mahler. It concludes with an analysis of the two-page coda to Mann's novella.Less
This chapter considers whether Thomas Mann was uncertain about the death of Gustav van Aschenbach in Death in Venice. It argues that the problem he faced could not have been that of deciding if Aschenbach should die but rather how. The difficulty was to discover the right death for his protagonist, a death that would show what it—and the life that preceded it—meant. Mann allows his readers more than one possibility for Aschenbach's death. Once he reveals that cholera is rampant in Venice, the threat of death is omnipresent, and he supplies a few clues consistent with the conclusion that his protagonist is infected with the dry form of the disease. Yet by presenting this death as so atypical of cholera sicca, he invites us to explore alternatives to what initially appears as the most obvious cause. The chapter also examines Luchino Visconti's film Morte a Venezia, and how he replaced the writer von Aschenbach with a composer of the same name, a composer plainly modeled on—if not identical with—Gustav Mahler. It concludes with an analysis of the two-page coda to Mann's novella.
Philip Kitcher
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231162647
- eISBN:
- 9780231536035
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231162647.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter focuses on Gustav von Aschenbach, the main character in Death in Venice. It asks: Does he succeed in fitting the disparate elements of his identity together? Is his life invalidated by ...
More
This chapter focuses on Gustav von Aschenbach, the main character in Death in Venice. It asks: Does he succeed in fitting the disparate elements of his identity together? Is his life invalidated by his capitulation to the lure of beauty? Must the artist inevitably succumb to that lure? For Mann, these were crucial questions, and the creation of Aschenbach was part of his long exploration of them, part of his lifelong endeavor to put himself on trial. The chapter suggests that the elaborate trappings of Death in Venice, the echoes of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, allusions to Greek mythology and play with Socratic dialogues, are disguises Mann used to mask a more basic story about the social distortion of sexuality and its costs. Freed from the conventional prejudices Mann accurately ascribed to his contemporaries, readers today can recognize the novella for what it is.Less
This chapter focuses on Gustav von Aschenbach, the main character in Death in Venice. It asks: Does he succeed in fitting the disparate elements of his identity together? Is his life invalidated by his capitulation to the lure of beauty? Must the artist inevitably succumb to that lure? For Mann, these were crucial questions, and the creation of Aschenbach was part of his long exploration of them, part of his lifelong endeavor to put himself on trial. The chapter suggests that the elaborate trappings of Death in Venice, the echoes of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, allusions to Greek mythology and play with Socratic dialogues, are disguises Mann used to mask a more basic story about the social distortion of sexuality and its costs. Freed from the conventional prejudices Mann accurately ascribed to his contemporaries, readers today can recognize the novella for what it is.
Philip Kitcher
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231162647
- eISBN:
- 9780231536035
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231162647.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This book provides a philosophical analysis of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and connects the predicament of the novella's central character to Western thought's most compelling questions. The book ...
More
This book provides a philosophical analysis of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and connects the predicament of the novella's central character to Western thought's most compelling questions. The book explains that Mann's work is one of the most widely read novellas in any language. It considers both the novella and a number of other works of art that have been adapted from it, including Benjamin Britten's opera and Luchino Visconti successful film. It describes the main themes of Mann's story, in which the character Gustav von Aschenbach becomes captivated by an adolescent boy, first seen on the lido in Venice, the eventual site of Aschenbach's own death. It explains how Mann uses the story to work through central concerns about how to live, themes that had been explored by his German predecessors, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The book considers how Mann's, Britten's, and Visconti's treatments illuminate the tension between social and ethical values and an artist's sensitivity to beauty. It shows how each work asks whether a life devoted to self-sacrifice in the pursuit of lasting achievements can be sustained and whether a breakdown of discipline undercuts its worth. The book also highlights that Aschenbach's story helps us reflect on whether it is possible to achieve anything in full awareness of our finitude and in knowing our successes are always incomplete.Less
This book provides a philosophical analysis of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and connects the predicament of the novella's central character to Western thought's most compelling questions. The book explains that Mann's work is one of the most widely read novellas in any language. It considers both the novella and a number of other works of art that have been adapted from it, including Benjamin Britten's opera and Luchino Visconti successful film. It describes the main themes of Mann's story, in which the character Gustav von Aschenbach becomes captivated by an adolescent boy, first seen on the lido in Venice, the eventual site of Aschenbach's own death. It explains how Mann uses the story to work through central concerns about how to live, themes that had been explored by his German predecessors, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The book considers how Mann's, Britten's, and Visconti's treatments illuminate the tension between social and ethical values and an artist's sensitivity to beauty. It shows how each work asks whether a life devoted to self-sacrifice in the pursuit of lasting achievements can be sustained and whether a breakdown of discipline undercuts its worth. The book also highlights that Aschenbach's story helps us reflect on whether it is possible to achieve anything in full awareness of our finitude and in knowing our successes are always incomplete.
