摘 要

人们活在注意力经济的时代，当下能够吸引到人们眼球的，已经不仅仅是传统定义里美丽的事物，更多的是以丑和猎奇博出位，那便是大众眼中的有可观赏性。人们评判事物的标准悄然发生着改变，导致人们的审美水平下降成为注定的结果。本文通过对《威尼斯之死》中少年的细节描写从美学角度分析，阐明美的真正存在意义的价值，希望唤醒人们内心深处对于美的渴望，提高人们的审美标准，帮助人们正确认识美。本文主要分为三个部分：第一部分，结合宇宙美学的理论，探究美的起源；第二部分，通过不同时期对美的不同认知态度研究美在人们心中地位变化的过程；第三部分，分析威尼斯之死中的文本细节阐明少年塔齐奥作为小说中美的意象的存在意义和价值。通过对《威尼斯之死》的文本分析，结合美学理论分析，表达人们内心对于美的本能追求。

关键词：《威尼斯之死》；美；塔齐奥

Abstract

People live in the era of attention economy. What attracts people’s attention now is not only the beautiful things of traditional definition, but also more likely the ugliness and curiosity which have value of appreciation. The standards for people’s judgments have swiftly changed, leading to a decline in people’s aesthetic level. This paper analyzes the details of the teenager in Death in Venice from the aesthetic point of view, clarifies the value of the true meaning of beauty, hopes to awaken people’s longings for beauty, improve aesthetic standards of them, and help the public correctly understand beauty. This paper is divided into three parts: the first part, combined with the theory of cosmic aesthetics, explores the origin of beauty; the second part, through the understanding of different cognitive attitudes of people in different periods, studies the process of the change of beauty in people’ minds; The third part analyzes the details of the text in the Death of Venice to clarify the existence and value of the young Tadzio as the image of beauty. Through the text of the Death in Venice, combined with the previous theoretical analysis, express people’s inner pursuit of beauty.

Key words: Death in Venice , beauty，Tadzio

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Beauty in universe 3

3 Beauty in human society 4

3.1 Beauty—embodiment of divinity 5

3.2 Beauty—acceleration of sense activities 5

3.3 Beauty—God’s measure to prevent indifference 6

4 Everlasting light 8

4.1 Appearance of light 8

4.2 Source of light 11

5 Conclusion 14

References 16

Acknowledgements 17

Death in Venice: Light Everlasting

1 Introduction

Aesthetics, a branch of philosophy, is based on the study of the nature and meaning of beauty. Western aesthetics flourished during the Greek-Roman period and was originally part of the philosophy of nature. As early as the third century BC, the Stoic faction had already noticed the beauty of nature (Gilbertamp;Kuhn, 1989, 4). At that time, the focus of aesthetics was on nature. In ancient Greece, Socrates turned his attention from the natural world to the society, and thus, aesthetics became an important part of social sciences. In the Middle Ages, Western aesthetic thoughts were stagnant due to the constraints of religious theology. Therefore, during the Renaissance, with the liberation of the spirit, the advancement of aesthetics ushered in a major outbreak. Then in the 16^th and 18^th century, with the changes and progress of society, aesthetics has been further developed in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and other countries. Although the complete theoretical system of aesthetics was introduced to China in modern times, the origin of Chinese aesthetics is not later than that of the West. In the pre-Qin period, due to the emergence of “Contention of a hundred schools of thought”, China’s classical aesthetic theory began to sprout, and it was reflected in the works of Confucius and Zhuangzi. Social and economic changes have taken place in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. People’s theoretical thoughts are very active. The trend of ideological emancipation that emerged during this period has impacted dogmatism aesthetics and retro-style aesthetics. Western aesthetics was introduced to China in the late Qing Dynasty. At the same time, China’s classical aesthetics was also summarized and systematically organized. Under the efforts of Cai Yuanpei and Zhu Guangqian and other aesthetics, the aesthetics rooted in China is developing in a broader direction. .

Death in Venice is a famous work by Thomas Mann. The work spreads the ancient Greek Aeschy-style classical tragedy spirit, describing the passion of a writer who broke out after meeting the young boy in Venice; his rationality, dignity and knowledge is defeated in the pursuit of beauty. After the advent of the novel, many writers have analyzed this novel more or less, like in Two Texts, Three Artists and a Theme—from the Novel Death in Venice and the Movie（Liu, 2009）. In the modern dilemma of creation, the author combines the novel to analyze the real dilemma of Thomas Man himself. In Typical and Mythical—Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice（Li，2006）, the author affirmed the literary status of Thomas Mann’s work. Some articles are also from the aesthetic point of view of Death in Venice, such as the Death of Narrative Aesthetics and Gender Identity Dilemma and Death in Venice: the Entanglement Between Beauty and Reason（Dai，2015）. This paper analyzes the influence of Tadzio’s image on the protagonist’s forgetful life and death in the novel from the aesthetic point of juvenile imagery.

This book is seen as a reflection of Thomas Mann’s life experience. Thomas Man has long demonstrated his great passion for writing. He was known throughout the world in middle age and was also regarded as an artist model by the government. The image of the beautiful boy in the book comes from a Polish teenager wearing a striped sailor shirt that Thomas Mann encountered during his trip to Venice. At the time, there were rumors that cholera had occurred, so Thomas Man left in a hurry. It was not until Thomas Mann’s death that the boy whom Thomas Mann met had written that he was the prototype of the boy in the book, and that the past was uncovered. Born in Poland, the boy was from a wealthy family. He was loved by his appearance when he was a child. He was even known as the angel of the great painter Giovanni Tiepolo.

This paper wants to analyze that Aschenbach’s love and obsession with Tazio from the perspective of aesthetics is the instinct and pursuit of good things from the heart, but not as what other people think, Aschenbach’s shallow degree of love for Tazio. Aschenbach certainly has an admiration for the boy, but this is because the beauty of Tadzio shocked the heart of Aschenbach. Tadzio used his godly face to let Aschenbach create a yearning for heaven. Aschenbach’s closeness to Tadzio is an instinctive approach. Tadzio is not only a beautiful young boy in his heart, but also a figurative representation of heaven. It is a paradise that exists in the mortal world.

2 Beauty in universe

In the early days of the cosmology school, the “world” represented an all-encompassing order and people’s unique views and attitudes toward order. Scholars attempt to explore a unique principle to explain the basic laws of the universe.(Gilbertamp;Kuhn, 1989)Everything in the universe has changed one after another, and it has formed an effective cycle. From the end to the beginning, and from the beginning to the end, this is why people think that the round shape is the most beautiful shape, and the sphere is also regarded as the most beautiful form by Pythagoras.

The theory of Pythagoras is the most popular in the aesthetics of the universe. Pythagoras believes that the foundation of beauty is order, and the advancement of order is harmony. The universe is infinite space and infinite time. The universe in the Pythagorean School is the whole world and the aesthetic object of the entire human race.

It can be seen that the early Greek aesthetics can be said to be cosmic aesthetics. In the theory of cosmic aesthetics, the Pythagorean School constructed a theoretical system in which numbers, music, and astronomy are closely linked. It is believed that “number” is the origin of the universe, and all celestial bodies in the universe are in harmony. From this, they conclude that the operation of the celestial bodies is regular, harmonious, and the trajectories of the near and far movements constitute the harmonious beauty of the universe, the sound, color, the visible, the sensible, and the touchable of the universe.

The universe is harmonious, and the material, the spirit, or even the soul in the universe is also harmonious. Pythagoras believes that “the virtue, health, goodness and God are harmonious; therefore, everything comes from harmony.”(Zhu, 1979) In the art theory of the Pythagorean School, perfection is the highest stage of harmony; the arrangement of “order” constitutes the internal structure and external procedures of the celestial body and it can be fully expressed. The appropriate proportion can constitute “symmetry”, and the beauty of the human body lies in the symmetry of each part. From this point of view, many concepts in the history of aesthetics have been used and solidified in the aesthetics of the Pythagoras School.