This study analyzes Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" as a critique of bourgeois ideological structures at the moment of their historical decline. The study argues that the disintegration which defines Aschenbach's life is not merely personal or psychological but is materially produced by the contradictions of late bourgeois society and the ideological exhaustion of its cultural forms. Most interpretations of the novella have seen Aschenbach's personal obsession, the conflict between Apollonian discipline and Dionysian desire, or the aesthetic pursuit of beauty. Such readings do not provide an understanding of the material and ideological conditions that create the moral and psychological dilemmas faced by the bourgeois artist. Three questions have been raised in this study: How does Death in Venice depict the way bourgeois economic and ideological structures shape and distort the consciousness of the artist? In what ways does Aschenbach's breakdown reflect the ideological contradictions produced by late capitalist society? Why does the novella depict bourgeois culture as inherently self-destructive? Therefore, the Neo-Marxist approach is used as an analytical tool. Some of the most important theorists included in this study are Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, and Theodor Adorno. Gramsci shows that bourgeois authority is maintained through cultural hegemony rather than mere force (Gramsci 12). Althusser reflects the role of ideological state apparatuses in shaping consciousness (Althusser 85). Adorno demonstrates how bourgeois culture produces its own negation (Adorno 98). The textual analysis of the novella reveals that Aschenbach's investment in bourgeois values of discipline, productivity, and respectability makes him a figure of compromised consciousness. His pursuit of Tadzio represents the return of everything his bourgeois identity has repressed. The conclusion is that Mann portrays bourgeois culture as a system that produces its own destruction, leaving only decay and the impossibility of authentic life.
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- Quote paper
- Nirmal Gurung (Author), 2026, Corruption and Disintegration. A Neo-Marxist Reading of Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1746331
