Modernism / Postmodernism

Modernism
idea of the “modern”:
the new, breaking with tradition, experiment

reaction to 19th century scientific and technological progress:
refocus on the individual, introspection
(“Neo-Romanticism”)
Freud: psychoanalysis

Einstein’s theory of relativity
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle

First World War 1914-18
World Economic Crisis
Second World War 1939-45
Holocaust

fundamental shift in the arts:

visual art: from realism to abstract art,
“art for art’s sake”

music: atonal music

literature: focus on language itself,
experimental poetry (symbolism, surrealism)
development of linguistic theory

stream-of-consciousmess technique

 Thomas Mann

1875 – 1955

merchant father, artistic mother
North/Nordic vs. South/Latin dualism

poor student, dislikes business world
turns to writing

Buddenbrooks, 1901

bourgeois vs. artist dualism
(many artist figures)

marries Katia Pringsheim, 1905
(6 children)

“Death in Venice,” 1912

The Magic Mountain, 1924

Nobel Prize for Literature, 1929

1930-45: speeches and radio talks against the Nazis
 exile in Switzerland, USA

1952 return to Europe
1955 death

prolific writer of novels and stories (“novellas”)

scandal in 1975:
publication of some of his diaries
confirmation of his homosexuality

the Mann family:
many writers
many suicides

Thomas Mann’s writing:
incredibly rich language, accurate detail
complex characters, settings,
philosophical and political discussions
 

"Death in Venice"

topics for discussion:

the motif of traveling
the figure of the traveler

 Gustav Aschenbach as a character
 as an artist figure

the complex of love / eros
his homosexual desire
(and how he represses and then pursues it)

the idea of beauty and art discussed in the narrative

 life vs. death
 the idea of disease and epidemic in this context

 the symbolism in the text (the “leitmotif”)
 the Greek mythology woven into the text (read the footnotes)