Title: The Myth Based on Reality: A Study of Cholera and the Epidemic Psychology in Death in Venice

Abstract: The naturalistic portrayal of cholera in Thomas Mann’s novel Death in Venice reflects the writer’s documentation of the historical truth about cholera in Venice in 1911. The tracing of the “Asian plague” in the novel reflects the stigmatized Western imagery of the colonial body and space in the East, and its simultaneous spread with the spirit of the Dionysus constitutes a metaphor for the psychological changes of the protagonist. The plague has contributed to the failure of the “Hobbesian Fear” deterrent, which has led to a mass depravity of behavior in Venice, thus releasing the protagonist’s passions, which are bound up in the morality of daily civic life, and driving him to the depths of depravity, both psychologically and in his behavior. By synchronizing the awakening process of the spirit of Dionysus, a symbol of passion, and the psychology of epidemic in the heart of the protagonist, Thomas Mann realized the dramatic combination of myth and reality.

Keywords: Death in Venice, cholera in Venice, epidemic psychology, “Hobbesian Fear”

Author: Si Yuan, Lecturer, College of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, Tianjing, China.