The Literature of Venice
The Literature of Venice. From William Shakespeare to Henry James and Ernest Hemingway: a Cross-Generational Literary Muse.
Following this introduction, we will in a future series of blogs posts, dive deeper into literary works about Venice, focusing on how each chosen author tackles common themes and highlighting their most illuminating quotes about the city.
While many reflect a different era in Venice’s history, they still provide descriptions, insights, and even recommendations that remain relevant today.
Introduction
Common Themes
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This post is a collaboration with guest contributor, Charlotte Seal.
“Cities of the heart should be seen through the eyes of others” – Valgimigli
Introduction
Venice has long captivated the world, not just for its location and composition, but also for its lasting influence on literature and art. The city has inspired countless writers, none more famously than William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Henry James (1843-1916), and Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961). Venetian history can no longer said to be encompassed by events, but also in how it features as the subject of some of the greatest literary works in modern times. In this post we explore the literary legacy of the city, that inspired generations of authors and poets.
The height of Venice’s opulence, monetary and cultural, took place from the 12th century until the 16th century. Yet it wasn’t until after the Renaissance, once the great city entered its prolonged era of decline, that it became the muse of great writers and literary figures from all over the world.
Interestingly, besides Marco Polo, the great travel writer of the 13th century, none of the most famous authors who write about Venice are Venetian. This reflects how much Venice has become a city defined for and by outsiders. The authors most celebrated for their works based on Venice, include William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice and Othello; Henry James, The Aspern Papers and Italian Hours; Ernest Hemingway, Across the River and into the Trees; yet there are so many more scattered throughout these centuries.
Though different in period and style, some of Lord Byron’s and Ezra Pound’s most beautiful poetry are about Venice. The city is so unique, for these writers it is a romantic protagonist, just as much as any character. To quote Henry James in The Aspern Papers, “Venice is a city one loves to dream about – a city which, indeed, possesses a personality as distinct as that of any living being.”
Venice: Reality and Illusion-1. Ian Coulling FRPS*
Common Themes – The Literature of Venice
In spite of different styles and periods, the nature of Venice seems to prompt writers to explore common themes.
Romance and Fantasy. This doesn’t necessarily refer to romantic ‘romance’ but rather romance in terms of the romanticisation of a place and scenario. These writers often explore the giving over to the mystery and the inexplicable of Venice, and revelling in that.
The shadows, the strange maze that artificially combines nature and urbanity, prompts reactions of reverence, awe, and imagination. Of course this is most explored in the Romantic era, namely by Lord Byron and Ann Radcliff in Mysteries of Udolpho. In this novel Venice is described as “the city of romance and mystery, of gorgeous palaces and shadowy canals, is the very region of fancy.” Yet, this theme is ubiquitous in works about Venice. The strange beauty of the city makes it impossible to avoid.
Death and Decay. In a geographical sense, rather than a social or economic one, Venice is itself a city in decay – constantly being eroded by the saline water that flows through it. The city wasn’t originally intended to last, first constructed only as a temporary shelter against the Barbarian invasion in the 5th century. Particularly the opulent architecture that defines Venice today, has been left to erode by the elements for centuries, the past they represent evoking a morbid beauty of its own.
The morbidity of Venice is best represented in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, as the natural decay of the hot city in summer infects the pompous tourist who thinks he is above the whims of the city’s dark tides. The narrator’s disgust of the city he visits foreshadows the natural decay that is soon to reach him, Venice is described by this novel’s narrator as “that squalid city with nothing left to sell but itself, that rouged corpse liquefying into the marsh from which it emerged.”
Venice is also used as the backdrop for themes of loss and death in Hemingway’s Across the River and Into the Trees. Set after World War II, the nivel follows Colonel Richard Cantwell, an ageing American officer facing his own imminent mortality from heart disease. Venice provides this character with a unique space for newfound introspection, allowing him to reflect on his own death, as well as the many death’s he experienced during the war.
Venice: Reality and Illusion-2. Ian Coulling FRPS*
Social stratification. As this last quote alludes to, as well as the dark cloud of death that hangs over Thomas Mann’s novel; there is also the shadow of class prejudice. This is another important theme in literature about Venice – that of the social stratification among locals, as well as in comparison with the outsiders; a question of morality for Venice that continues to this day.
Henry James, for example, sometimes describes the locals of Venice as though they were part of the grand museum that Venice is, and with a certain air of upper class condescension. This approach to Venice is mocked by Thomas Mann, whose unfortunate protagonist treats the locals with waspish rudeness, choosing to visit as city only to call it “squalid.” Ultimately he is left as a tourist in the dark to the true nature of the city and is punished for it by the end of the novel. Similarly, the Merchant of Venice explores prejudices and conflicts in Venice’s complex social tapestry, particularly that of the Jewish population in Venice.
Duality, multiple identity and false appearances. This theme goes hand in hand with the fantastical and romantic aspect, which is all based on perception, This, of course, is a result of the Venice Carnival, where masks and grand disguises hide the person beneath. Yet it is also to do with the structure and history of the city. Since the renaissance, the city has gained from giving an impression of grandeur to the outside world, despite what lurks beneath. St Mark’s Basilica, for example, is coated in sheets of marble, but its true structure is made of plain brick. Because of the merchant wealth of Venice, the importance of trade, and thus the relationship between appearance and value; Venice is known for disguising the truth behind appearance.
Transience. The fact that nothing has a fixed meaning in Venice is reflected by its structure, the constant flow of water suggests a transience to things. This theme is very well explored in The Aspern Papers by Henry James, which uses a narrator with constantly shifting values and describes characters, as though they drastically change nature from one moment to the next based on circumstance. In the span of a short conversation, for example, the narrator describes the beginning and end of the “transfiguration” of another character.
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We will be exploring such literary works about Venice in more depth, in a series of blog posts looking particularly at how each author approaches these common themes and exploring their most illuminating quotes about Venice.
Though many belong to another time in Venice’s history, each of them offer descriptions, explanations and even recommendations to do with Venice that are still relevant today.
To see Venice through the romantic eye of prose, poetry and past, read on….
Venice: Reality and Illusion-3. Ian Coulling FRPS*
Photographic Note.
In the imagery presented in this post and his three others linked below, Ian Coulling creates a new visualisation of the Venetian urban landscape. A single original photograph, together with three other horizontally and vertically reversed images; were combined to form a new composite. Photographs were selected for showing how direct and reflected light, acts at the interface of air and water; to produce the magic, of “reality and illusion”, or in other terms “solidity and liquidity”. Others were chosen, capturing reflected light only, giving a more abstracted effect.
In these composites, a whole new Venetian world opens up and strange image components appear; such as new and rather “fantastical” structures and sometimes biomorphic forms. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. They are best viewed online at a large image size, so that you can really look into and explore the new visual world created.
The inspiration to investigate the potential of the composite image-making process, to explore the effects of multiple image planes, altered perspectives and space in Venetian urban scenes; essentially came from quotes made by artists, writers and poets over the centuries; regarding the “floating nature of Venice, its magical direct and reflected light and its mirror effects”.
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In the three “Depicting Venice” posts below, see many more of these images and learn how they were conceived and made. A block of four images can be ordered in several ways. The fascination lies in its unpredictability.
“Depicting Venice – Ian Coulling”
Henry James and the Allure of Venice
Ernest Hemingway’s Love for Venice
VIDEO: The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare | Summary & Analysis
VIDEO: Othello – Play Summary
VIDEO: Henry James Documentary
VIDEO: Ernest Hemingway Biography: A Life of Love and Loss
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