Death in Venice » (Special Value)

German essayist, cultural critic, and novelist, Thomas Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. Among his most famous works are Buddenbrooks, published when he was just twenty-six, The Magic Mountain, and Doctor Faustus.

This critical edition of Mann's 1912 modernist novella reprints the widely praised translation by David Luke. Accompanying this text, five critical essays examine the work from five contemporary critical perspectives:
Psychoanalytic Criticism, by Rodney Symington
Reader-Response Criticism, by Lilian Furst
Cultural Criticism, by John Burt Foster, jr.
Gender Criticism, by Robert Tobin
New History, by Russell Berman

A succinct introduction to the history, principles, and practice of each critical approach precedes each essay. Readers may also benefit from extensive bibliographies following the essays and a glossary of critical and theoretical terms.

The editor's introduction to the book discusses biographical and historical contexts for both Mann and his text. Her survey of critical responses to it starts in 1912 and ends in 1998.

Kirkus Reviews

New versions of 12 celebrated stories, including the famous title novella, many previously collected in Mann's seminal Stories of Three Decades. Neugroschel's persuasive "Preface" makes a strong case for fresh translations, given both this century's inevitable linguistic shifts and Mann's employment within individual works of specific vocabularies and styles (e.g., those of Wagnerian opera in the hair-raising "The Blood of the Walsungs"). And Neugr"schel essentially finesses the issue of revealing the stories' inherent sexuality; their author was, after all, a master of elegant indirection dedicated to muted presentations of matters that were anathema to both his public and his own sedulously respectable persona. That said, it's wonderful to have vivid, lucid English versions of Mann's sophisticated portrayals of sexual obsession and humiliation ("Little Herr Friedemann"), illness- as-metaphor in a tale ("Tristan") that concisely prefigures The Magic Mountain, and the transfiguring intersection of artistic with homosexual passion (Death in Venice, Tonio Kr"ger). Brilliant work, in any case, from one of the century's great writers.

About the Series
About This Volume

PART I. DEATH IN VENICE: THE COMPLETE TEXT

Introduction: Biographical and Historical Contexts

The Complete Text [Translated by David Luke]

PART II. DEATH IN VENICE: A CASE STUDY IN CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM

Critical History of Death in Venice

Psychoanalytic Criticism and Death in Venice
What Is Psychoanalytic Criticism?
Psychoanalytic Criticism: A Selected Bibliography A Psychoanalytic Perspective:
Rodney Symington, The Eruption of the Other: Psychoanalytic Approaches to Death in Venice

Reader-Response Criticism and Death in Venice
What Is Reader-Response Criticism?
Reader-Response Criticism: A Selected Bibliography A Reader-Response Perspective:
Lillian R. Furst, The Potential Deceptiveness of Reading in Death in Venice

Cultural Criticism and Death in Venice
What Is Cultural Criticism?
Cultural Criticism: A Selected Bibliography A Cultural Perspective:
John Burt Foster Jr., Why Is Tadzio Polish? Kultur and Cultural Multiplicity in Death in Venice

Gender Criticism and Death in Venice
What Is Gender Criticism?
Gender Criticism: A Selected Bibliography A Perspective on Gender and Sexuality
Robert Tobin, The Life and Work of Thomas Mann: A Gay Perspective

New Historicism and Death in Venice
What Is New Historicism?
New Historicism: A Selected Bibliography A New Historicist Perspective:
Russell A. Berman, History and Community in Death in Venice

Glossary of Critical and Theoretical Terms

About the Contributors