Representation·Space·Behavior: On the Dimension of the Consumptive Alienation of Affect in Death in Venice

Abstract

The tragic connotation of Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice (1912) has traditionally been examined from three traditional perspectives: the tension between reason and desire, the aesthetics of disease and death, and mythological archetype metaphors. However, the implicit logic of the early consumer society within the text has been largely overlooked. This study uses Baudrillard's symbolic consumption theory as the core framework, and combines Benjamin's "aura" theory and Freud's "libido" theory to construct an analytical framework of symbolic representation, spatial commodification, and behavioral consumerist transformation. Through this framework, the study reveals the mechanisms and characteristics of affective alienation in the novel. Although Europe had not yet developed a mature consumer society around 1912, emerging consumption prototypes—such as accelerated urbanization and the rise of tourism—provided the socio-historical context for consumptive alienation of affect. Tadzio's representation was dismantled into appropriable signs such as classical and morbid beauty; Venice was degraded to a standardized tourist commodity space; and Aschenbach's commodified gaze and self-commodification signify the shift of affect from spiritual resonance to monetaryized consumption behavior. Rather than denying the value of desire and physical beauty, this study exposes how consumer logic distorts affective relations, offering both a renewed modern interpretation of the classic texts and a literary reference for understanding contemporary affective reification.