Deaths in Venice

The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-0-231-16264-7
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 237 mm, Gewicht: 528 g

Reihe: Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures

Published in 1913, Thomas Mann's Death in Venice is one of the most widely read novellas in any language. In the 1970s, Benjamin Britten adapted it into an opera, and Luchino Visconti turned it into a successful film. Reading these works from a philosophical perspective, Philip Kitcher connects the predicament of the novella's central character to Western thought's most compelling questions.

In Mann's story, the author Gustav von Aschenbach becomes captivated by an adolescent boy, first seen on the lido in Venice, the eventual site of Aschenbach's own death. Mann works through central concerns about how to live, explored with equal intensity by his German predecessors, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Kitcher 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. Each work asks whether a life devoted to self-sacrifice in the pursuit of lasting achievements can be sustained and whether the breakdown of discipline undercuts its worth. Haunted by the prospect of his death, Aschenbach also 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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kitcher, Philip

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Europäische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ästhetik
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Opernmusik
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of IllustrationsPrefaceList of AbbreviationsA Note on Translations1. Discipline2. Beauty3. ShadowsNotesIndex

Leseproben

Read an excerpt from the chapter "Discipline":

Über Autor(innen)

Philip Kitcher is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and the author of numerous books and articles, including Science in a Democratic Society, The Ethical Project, and Preludes to Pragmatism: Toward a Reconstruction of Philosophy.