Approaches to Teaching Mann's "Death in Venice" and Other Short Fiction

Widely taught in undergraduate and graduate courses, the works of Thomas Mann, the 1929 Nobel Prize laureate for literature, continue to fascinate readers. This collection of essays for teachers focuses primarily on Death in Venice, Tonio Kr ger, and Tristan, which, on the basis of responses to an international survey conducted to prepare this volume, are Mann's most frequently taught works of short fiction. Like other books in the MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, this one is divided into two parts. The first part, "Materials," is a comprehensive overview of instruction resources: editions and translations, reference works, background materials, general introductions and critical studies, and audiovisual materials. In the second part, "Approaches," fourteen scholars provide illuminating descriptions of effective ways to teach Mann's work, whether in translation or in the original German. Essays discuss the literary importance of Death in Venice, Tonio Kr ger, and Tristan and examine Mann's fiction from historical, cultural, psychoanalytic, feminist, and philosophical viewpoints.