Decadence and Literature

Shows how the concept of decadence has evolved into a major cultural trope with broad explanatory power.

Jane Desmarais (Edited by), David Weir (Edited by)

9781108426244, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 August 2019

430 pages, 10 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.2 cm, 0.75 kg

Decadence and Literature explains how the concept of decadence developed since Roman times into a major cultural trope with broad explanatory power. No longer just a term of opprobrium for mannered art or immoral behaviour, decadence today describes complex cultural and social responses to modernity in all its forms. From the Roman emperor's indulgence in luxurious excess as both personal vice and political control, to the Enlightenment libertine's rational pursuit of hedonism, to the nineteenth-century dandy's simultaneous delight and distaste with modern urban life, decadence has emerged as a way of taking cultural stock of major social changes. These changes include the role of women in forms of artistic expression and social participation formerly reserved for men, as well as the increasing acceptance of LGBTQ+ relationships, a development with a direct relationship to decadence. Today, decadence seems more important than ever to an informed understanding of contemporary anxieties and uncertainties.

Introduction Jane Desmarais and David Weir
Part I. Origins: 1. Decadence in Ancient Rome Jerry Toner
2. Decadence and Roman historiography Shushma Malik
3. Nineteenth-century literary and artistic responses to Roman decadence Isobel Hurst
4. Decadence and the enlightenment Chad Denton
5. Decadence and the urban sensibility Michael Shaw
6. Decadence and the critique of modernity Jane Desmarais
7. Decadence and aesthetics Sacha Golob
Part II. Developments: 8. Decadence and the visual arts Laura Moure Cecchini
9. Decadence and music Emma Sutton
10. Decadence, parody, and new women's writing Kate Krueger
11. The philosophy of decadence Nicholas D. More
12. The sexual psychology of decadence Melanie Hawthorne
13. The theology of decadence Matthew Bradley
14. The science of decadence Jordan Kistler
15. The sociology of decadence Jeffrey Sachs
Part III. Applications: 16. Decadence and urban geography Theresa Zeitz-Lindamood
17. Socio-aesthetic histories: Vienna 1900 and Weimar Berlin Katharina Herold
18. Decadence and cinema David Weir
19. Transnational decadence Stefano Evangelista
20. Decadence and modernism Gerald Gillespie
21. Modern prophetic poetry and the decadence of empires: from Kipling to Auden Chris Baldick
22. The gender of decadence: Paris-Lesbos from the fin de siècle to the interwar era Deborah Longworth
23. Decadence and popular culture Alice Condé.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary theory [DSA]