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"Eros, Art, Order, Death in Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice'" with Claudia Traudt

Kibbitznest
Chicago, IL

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FREE & OPEN to the Public!

Kibbitznest Liberal Arts Discussions are a collaboration with
The University of Chicago Graham School to host presentations
and discussions of original research.
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'Death in Venice' is Thomas Mann's 1912 short story/novella of the middle-aged German writer/artist Gustave von Aschenbach roiled unto death by his response to the beautiful Polish youth Tadzio on Venice's Lido. The work is an erotic/aesthetic watershed, a kind of touchstone, litmus test - as was its 1971 film adaptation by Luchino Visconti. Does Aschenbach's Dionysiac succumbing and expressing it free him into creativity and loving? Does it degrade and destroy him? Is Apollonian reason and order the benchmark of art - a cowardly denial, a safeguarder of life? Death in Venice is gorgeous, thrilling, troubling, provocative - at once profoundly philosophical, psychological and primal. We will explore some of its beauties, grotesqueries, and explosivenesses.

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CLAUDIA TRAUDT holds an MA from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Her art-making, research, and teaching explore modes of creation and perception in word and image. She is the 2006 recipient of the Graham School's Excellence in Teaching Award for the Basic Program.

Registration is not required, but appreciated due to space limitations.

Sponsors: McCarthy & Trinka Insurance

kibbitznest is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and wifi-free zone dedicated to the preservation of quality face-to-face human communication.