Transcript Thomas Mann, A Death in Venice

Thomas Mann, A Death in Venice
Dr. Theresa Thompson
English 2130
Fall 2008
Quiz:
1. Who is the main
character?
2. What does he do for a
living?
3. Why does he go to
Venice?
Thomas Mann
(1875-1955)
 "Literature is death and I
shall never understand how
one can be a slave to it
without hating it".
 Volksgeist: “spirit of a people”
 Buddenbrooks --1901
 Sold one million copies 1st year.
 1905: Marries Katia
Pingsheim
 Death in Venice -- 1913
 The Magic Mountain--1924
 Nobel Prize for literature-1926
 Relationship with Paul
Ehrenberg
Mann felt his life reflected
sentiments of many fellow
Europeans.
 Nazi Stance on Homosexuality
 Doktor Faustus --1947
Modernism: Psychological Shifts (modernité)
Reflected in Artistic Forms
Ontology: No longer “nature of the real,” but what is
real?
Personal experiences & perceptions get privileged.
How represent the experience of reality?
J. C. Oates: “…though we each exist
subjectively, and know the world only
through the prism of self, this ‘subjectivity’ is
inaccessible, thus unreal, and mysterious, to
others. And the obverse—all others are, in
the deepest sense, strangers.”
Passion and Voltaire’s Philosophical Legacy
 “Chance is a word empty of sense;
nothing can exist without a cause.”
 “The world is arranged according to
mathematical laws; it is therefore
arranged by intelligence.”
 “The name of love is given boldly…to a
thousand chimeras….It is in no wise
with this plague as with so many other
maladies that are the result of our
excesses.”
 “It was not debauch that introduced [love]
into the world…; it was born in some
islands where men lived in innocence.”
 Aschenbach (1841)
Third Revolution: Psychology
 Freudian Psychology: repression and the individual
unconscious
 the act of entering into civilized society requires
repression of archaic, primitive desires.
 repression is a normal part of human
development
 Jungian Psychology: archetypes and the collective
unconscious
 collective unconscious: consists of mythological /
primordial images
 The Persona: the mask we wear.
 The Shadow: negative or inferior side of the
personality. What we wish to deny.
 Individuation: a process whereby we become
integrated and complete by facing the Shadow,
recognising it, and incorporating it into the Self.
Fredrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Nihilism: No metaphysical moral knowledge, truth, or
objective values or ideals.
rejection of that which requires faith for salvation or
actualization;
rejection of belief in final purpose, that the universe is
built upon non-random events and that everything is
structured towards an eventual conclusive revelation.
Moral codes arise from social origins.
Each individual must create her /his own morality.
Sublimate and control passions in order to emphasize
inherent creativity.
Nietzschean Oppositions
 Apollonian / Dionysian Conflict
 Apollo was the Greek god of truth, light, and order;
 Dionysus, the god of fertility, passion, spontaneity, and rebellion.
 Master / Slave Morality: Will to power / Ascetic ideals
 To deny wealth, power, sex, drinking, sensuality, etc. is to deny all
that the privileged classes possess.
 The ascetic has to contend with the fact that he secretly desires
these things. (Mann 1845)
 Aschenbach’s artistic conflict
 Apollonian: “sober conscientiousness” (1842)
 Dionysian:“fiery impulses” (1843)
 Aschenbach “had pandered to the intellect…” (1846).
 Intellect repressing passion (1847, 1849)
The Grotesque in Literature (fr. Wolfgang
Kayser)
Grotesque: characterized by distortions or
striking incongruities in appearance, shape, or
manner; the fantastic and bizarre.
Entering the “estranged world” (1852).
A pregnant moment. (1855)
The world ceases to be reliable, we feel unable to
live in this changed world. (1857, 1861)
Unlike the gothic, the grotesque instills fear of life
rather than death.
Aschenbach’s choice (1859, 1861, 1863, 1864-5)
Plague & the pollution cycle (1862)
Axes of Experiential Reality
Time
Phenomenal
Experience
Life
Material
Reality
Time