You could try a comparis<strong>on</strong> between the issues of <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> Turn of the Screw <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> what Emily Dickins<strong>on</strong> writes about: <strong>this</strong> would be very interesting. Other comparis<strong>on</strong>s <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be made would be with Raskolnikov's state of mind; <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> you could think about the text as modernist, in that it refuses <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be interpreted: it is not clear what has happened in the text, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> any attempt <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> pin it down turns out <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be impossible. In what ways is <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> Turn of the Screw a modernist work? Or a feminist text? Or a text simply trying <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> cause a thrill? Or a text about the corrupti<strong>on</strong> of children? Death in Venice We will look at <strong>this</strong> text via the film made by Luchino Visc<strong>on</strong>ti in 1971, starring Dirk Bogarde, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> with music from his 3rd <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> 5th Symph<strong>on</strong>ies by Gustav Mahler. I recommend that you also try <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>read</str<strong>on</strong>g> the novella by Thomas Mann (1875-1955). <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> difference in the film is that Aschenbach is made not a writer, as he is in the novella, but a musician &emdash;specifically the Jewish composer of symph<strong>on</strong>ies, who lived in Vienna, Mahler (1860-1911). Much of the extra dialogue that the film puts in comes from Thomas Mann's later novel, Doc<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>r Faustus, which is about an imaginary musician, partly based <strong>on</strong> Nietzsche, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> partly <strong>on</strong> Arnold Schoenberg, the Modernist composer. Schoenberg believed that music should be a <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>tally intellectual structure, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> devised a highly objective system of writing, called the twelve <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>ne method, in order <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> present it. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> film shows arguments between Aschenbach <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> another musician who is supposed <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be Schoenberg, but the arguments <strong>are</strong> very difficult <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> follow. Basically, in <strong>this</strong> film, A., who goes <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> Venice <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> recuperate from a nervous breakdown, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> there falls in love with the Polish boy Tadzio, has tried <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> write music that denies the emoti<strong>on</strong>s, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> that is anti-sensual, because music &emdash; such is the power of the devil in it; leads you back <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> sexuality, <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> the body, not <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>wards some kind of higher sphere. A. is shocked <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> discover that when he is in Venice, his emoti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>are</strong> released, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> that they turn out <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be homosexual in character. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> difference from the novella is great, however, for A in that is not a talented artist, though <strong>this</strong> point is not easy <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> grasp, because the ir<strong>on</strong>ic structure of the writing c<strong>on</strong>ceals it, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> many <str<strong>on</strong>g>read</str<strong>on</strong>g>ers <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> critics of Mann take A. <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be wholly genuine. I see him as bourgeois, writing work that will flatter the bourgeoisie, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> actually pro<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>-fascist &emdash; as Germany was pro<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>fascist, before the take-over of power by the Nazi party in 1933. (See my Opera <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> the Culture of Fascism (1996), which has some discussi<strong>on</strong> of <strong>this</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> of the novella.) <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> fascist writer makes some disturbing discoveries about himself in Venice, <strong>on</strong>ce he lets go … <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> novella may be regarded as a critique of both Germany <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> of Pla<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>nism, the idea that there can be a sublimati<strong>on</strong> (ie. diversi<strong>on</strong>) away from sexuality. It may be a c<strong>on</strong>fessi<strong>on</strong>al text (Mann may have something of Aschenbach in him). It may be also that the novella should be regarded as the ultimate in modernism, like <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> Turn of the Screw &emdash; a parable without a meaning, a s<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>ry which refuses <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be interpreted. It has aroused c<strong>on</strong>tinuous interpretati<strong>on</strong>, however, since it first appe<strong>are</strong>d (1913); e.g. by D. H. Lawrence, who wrote an early review, (<str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> it was the first essay I wrote for publicati<strong>on</strong>, in New Universities Quarterly, around 1981). <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> film also includes aspects of Nietzsche. It keeps in the s<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>ry, derived from "Doc<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>r Faustus" that N. deliberately infected himself with syphilis by visiting a brothel; it also plays <strong>on</strong> the idea, which is also Nietzschean, that life has <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be accepted in its <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>tality. It is therefore anti the ascetic ideal. One poem that Nietzsche wrote, in Thus Spake Zarathustra appears in
the film, set <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> music by Mahler, as part of Symph<strong>on</strong>y no. 3. See Zarathustra secti<strong>on</strong> 3 chapter 15. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> bibliography <strong>on</strong> Mann is huge. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g>re <strong>are</strong> some comments <strong>on</strong> the film in D<strong>on</strong>ald Mitchell's study of the opera of Death in Venice (by Benjamin Britten). <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> novel has been twice translated in<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> English: see the new trans. by Clay<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>n Koelb (1994). Studies by T.J. Reed, by Ursula W. Schneider, by Ilsedore B. J<strong>on</strong>as, for instance, <strong>are</strong> useful; but you should also try <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> make your own discoveries. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> essay subject <strong>on</strong> <strong>this</strong> would be <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> comp<strong>are</strong> its methods as a novella with those of James, or <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> relate it <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> Genealogy of Morals, <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> ask about whether it affirms life or feels guilty, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> how you think the novella <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> the film comp<strong>are</strong>. Or just try an interpretati<strong>on</strong> of the text.
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