Italia – Arcadia? On the connection between the autonomy of art and the death of the artist

Authors : Katharina MEİSER

Pages : 97-111

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Publication Date : 2015-10-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Both the titular figure of Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s lyrical one-act play Der Tod des Tizian and Thomas Mann’s neoclassical writer Gustav von Aschenbach die just in or near Venice, which frees them from a substantial crisis of artistic self-legitimation. The Italian scenery – filled with traditional topoi of the utopian imagination of Arcadia – transports the normativity of a harmonious unity of the self and the world, art and life – both texts scrutinizen this aspect. Hofmannsthal and Thomas Mann render ‚Arcadia’ as a poetic and creative reference point to illustrate the rootlessness of the modern artist. The non-place Arcadia – as the origin myth of art and the ideal image of an organic and harmonious integration – serves as a basis for nagotiating the ongoing problem of artistic self-positioning.
Keywords : Arcadia, Death oft the artist, Classical German Literature, Aestheticism, Autonomy of Art