Deaths in Venice

The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach

By:

Philip Kitcher

Format:

Hardback

Series:

Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures

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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.

Author Biography:

Philip Kitcher is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and the author of numerous books and articles, including The Ethical Project (2014), Preludes to Pragmatism: Toward a Reconstruction of Philosophy (2012), and Science in a Democratic Society (2011).

Release date Australia

November 12th, 2013

Author

Philip Kitcher

Audience

Professional & Vocational

Illustrations

17 Illustrations, unspecified

Pages

280

Series

Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures

Dimensions

152x229x28

ISBN-13

9780231162647

Product ID

21420600

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