| Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav Von Aschenbach Contributor(s): Kitcher, Philip (Author) |
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ISBN: 0231162650 ISBN-13: 9780231162654 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $25.74 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2016 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Aesthetics - Music | Genres & Styles - Opera - Literary Criticism | European - General |
| Dewey: 111.85 |
| Series: Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.6" W x 8.7" (0.80 lbs) 280 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |