Death in Venice: From Literature to Film

Abstract

The general problem of this paper is that of the translation of works of art from one art form to another-in particular the translation of literature into film and, more specifically, a few problems in the translation of Mann's Death in Venice into Visconti's Death in Venice. The fact that Visconti's film does not have the same status of a modern classic as Mann's novella may have to do with the nature of the process of inter-art-form translation, a process I will refer to as aesthetic translation. First, a distinction between aesthetic translation and aesthetic adaptation. An adaptation of a work from one art form to another makes no claim to be a faithful aesthetic translation. An adaptation, however strongly it may have been suggested by or is based upon or adapted from its original, may be experienced and evaluated apart from considerations of its fidelity to the original; we are satisfied with a rough connection. An aesthetic translation, however, makes a claim, implicit or explicit, to fidelity to its original. It thus invites a judgment with respect to the degree to which it conveys the significance of the original as well as an analysis of the aesthetic devices distinctive of its own art form that enable it to make