| This thesis approaches Thomas Mann's Der Tod in Venedig (1912) through a number of its translations. It seeks to extend the original text by performing close, comparative readings across these multilingual renderings.; The theory rests on the macrotextual model of reading as set out by Patrick O'Neill. This model holds neither that translations are inferior copies of an original, nor that they are merely "metatexts" about an original, but that they are extensions of the original. This model allows us to view all translations---even "bad" ones---as legitimate expansions, rather than distortions, of the original text. In this way, the literary text that grows with each new translation becomes an evolving macrotext , constituted of the "original" as well as all of its translations in any language.; In order to read this macrotext, the process of transtextual reading---reading across texts and languages---is required. The most interesting feature of this process is its tendency to use translations to identify extensions of the original text; as such, it necessarily constitutes a gain for the original text.; In light of this, the thesis embarks on transtextual readings of Der Tod in Venedig and twelve of its English, French, and Italian translations. The material for these readings is taken from the novella in four passages, which comprise as many chapters. Apart from a detailed account of the specific transtextual process, each chapter includes suggestions as to the most useful observations to have arisen from the reading. After the completion of all four readings, the conclusion performs a refocusing function, citing examples from the analysis to make statements regarding the transtextual process and its import for the literary work. |
