The Black Swan
The Black Swan
By Thomas Mann
Introduction by Nina Pelikan Straus
Translated by Willard R. Trask
"In The Black Swan Thomas Mann returns to the compact dimensions and to the subject matter of Death in Venice (transposed into heterosexual terms)—the infatuation of an aging person for a young one. . . . A provocative addition to Mann's writings."—C. J. Rolo, Atlantic Monthly
Thomas Mann's bold and disturbing novella, written in 1952, is the feminine counterpart of his masterpiece Death in Venice. Written from the point of view of a woman in what we might now call mid-life crisis, The Black Swan evinces Mann's mastery of psychological analysis and his compelling interest in the intersection of the physical and the spiritual in human behavior. It is startlingly relevant to current discussions of the politics of the body, male inscriptions of the feminine, and discourse about and of women. The new introduction places this dramatic novella in the context of contemporary feminist and literary concerns, bringing it to the attention of a new generation of readers.
Paperback
155 pages
California University Press, 1990
Originally Published in 1953
5.2 x 0.4 x 7.3 inches
ISBN 9780520070097
Psychological Fiction