“I write of love and death. What other subjects are there?”
-Arthur Schnitzler
I read Arthur Schnitzler’s “Traumnovelle” / “Dream Story” in my second last year of literary studies in English, German, French and Italian.
I read it first in German and was completely fascinated by the old chthonic Vienna that seemed infected by dream worlds, unspoken fantasies, child prostitution, decadence, sickness, sex and death.
The dance between Eros and Thanatos compelled me. The interplay between the underworld, projected desires, the potential embodiments thereof and assumed realities.
In my postgraduate thesis, I analysed Schnitzler’s novella alongside Kubrick’s adaptation “Eyes Wide Shut” and compared their death / sex symbolism and mimetic psychology to several other literary works and adaptations.
“Rosa Triplex” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
Croque-Melpomene 