Death in Venice

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Death in Venice is Thomas Mann’s most famous – and infamous - novella. Published in 1912, it’s about the fall of the repressed writer Gustav von Aschenbach, when his supposedly objective appreciation of a young boy’s beauty becomes sexual obsession. It explores the link between creativity and self-destruction, and by the end Aschenbach’s humiliation is complete, dying on a deckchair in the act of ogling. Aschenbach's stalking of the boy and dreaming of pederasty can appal modern readers, even more than Mann expected.

With

Karolina Watroba, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Modern Languages at All Souls College, University of Oxford

Erica Wickerson, a Former Research Fellow at St Johns College, University of Cambridge

Sean Williams, Senior Lecturer in German and European Cultural History at the University of Sheffield

Sean Williams' series of Radio 3's The Essay, Death in Trieste, can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lzd4

Transcript

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0:48.7	program. Hello Death in Venice is Thomas Mann's most famous novella, published in
0:53.7	1912. It's about the fall of a repressed writer Gustav von Ashenbach when
0:58.5	his objective appreciation of a young boy's beauty becomes obsession.
1:03.8	It explores the link between creativity and self-destruction.
1:07.3	And by the Anashenbach's humiliation is complete, dying on a deck chair in an act of
1:12.1	ogling. Anas national buck stalking of the boy can
1:15.1	appel modern readers even more than man expected. With me to discuss death in Venice by
1:20.6	Thomas Mann, I currently in Ortroba, Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Modern Languages
1:25.9	at All Cells College University of Oxford. Erica Wickersen, a former research fellow at St. John's College
1:32.3	University of Cambridge and Sean Williams,
	...

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