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Decadence and Modernism in European and Russian Literature and Culture: Aesthetics and Anxiety in the 1890s
by Jonathan StoneDecadence and Modernism in European and Russian Literature and Culture: Aesthetics and Anxiety in the 1890s rewrites the story of early modernist literature and culture by drawing out the tensions underlying its simultaneous engagement with Decadence and Symbolism, the unsustainable combination of this world and the other. With a broadly framed literary and cultural approach, Jonathan Stone examines a shift in perspective that explodes the notion of reality and showcases the uneasy relationship between the tangible and intangible aspects of the surrounding world. Modernism quenches a growing fascination with the ephemeral and that which cannot be seen while also doubling down on the significance of the material world and finding profound meaning in the physical and the corporeal. Decadence and Symbolism complement the broader historical trajectory of the fin de siècle by affirming the novelty of a modernist mindset and offering an alternative to the empirical and positivistic atmosphere of the nineteenth century. Stone seeks to recreate a significant historical and cultural moment in the development of modernity, a moment that embraces the concept of Decadence while repurposing its aesthetic and social import to help navigate the fundamental changes that accompanied the dawn of the twentieth century.
Decadence, Degeneration, And The End
by Marja Härmänmaa Christopher NissenArt and literature during the European fin-de-siecle period often manifested themes of degeneration and decay, both of bodies and civilizations, as well as illness, bizarre sexuality, and general morbidity. This collection explores these topics in relation to artists and writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde, August Strindberg, and Aubrey Beardsley. "
Decadence in Literature and Intellectual Debate since 1945
by Diemo LandgrafBridging the gap between decadence as it is traditionally understood in literary and cultural studies and its relevance to current phenomena, this interdisciplinary collection examines literary texts and movies from Europe and the United States since 1945.
Decadence in the Age of Modernism (Hopkins Studies in Modernism)
by Kate Hext & Alex MurrayThe first holistic reappraisal of the significance of the decadent movement, from the 1900s through the 1930s.Decadence in the Age of Modernism begins where the history of the decadent movement all too often ends: in 1895. It argues that the decadent principles and aesthetics of Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater, Algernon Swinburne, and others continued to exert a compelling legacy on the next generation of writers, from high modernists and late decadents to writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Writers associated with this decadent counterculture were consciously celebrated but more often blushingly denied, even as they exerted a compelling influence on the early twentieth century. Offering a multifaceted critical revision of how modernism evolved out of, and coexisted with, the decadent movement, the essays in this collection reveal how decadent principles infused twentieth-century prose, poetry, drama, and newspapers. In particular, this book demonstrates the potent impact of decadence on the evolution of queer identity and self-fashioning in the early twentieth century. In close readings of an eclectic range of works by Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and D. H. Lawrence to Ronald Firbank, Bruce Nugent, and Carl Van Vechten, these essays grapple with a range of related issues, including individualism, the end of Empire, the politics of camp, experimentalism, and the critique of modernity. Contributors: Howard J. Booth, Joseph Bristow, Ellen Crowell, Nick Freeman, Ellis Hanson, Kate Hext, Kirsten MacLeod, Kristin Mahoney, Douglas Mao, Michèle Mendelssohn, Alex Murray, Sarah Parker, Vincent Sherry
La decadencia de Cataluña: Contada por un charnego
by Gregorio MoránEl incisivo retrato de la evolución de la sociedad catalana en los últimos 20 años por un observador privilegiado. «La decadencia de Cataluña abarca diecisiete años de historia, un total de cuarenta y seis textos que definen el presente de este país que ahora es el mío porque yo lo decidí; un privilegio del que no gozan la mayoría de los autóctonos, obligados a vivir allí donde los parió su madre, les guste o no. De ahí el orgullo de "charnego", expresión utilizada para quien vino a trabajar a Cataluña. En mi caso no tiene el más mínimo sentido lo de sentirse integrado en la sociedad donde se vive, cosa que tampoco me ocurriría en París, Roma o Lisboa, porque no aspiro a ser "charnego agradecido". Ni ellos me regalan nada ni yo les bendigo por su benevolencia. Cada cual cumple con su trabajo y su responsabilidad como ciudadano. Punto.»
La decadencia de la mentira
by Oscar WildeUna defensa del arte por el arte clave para descubrir el pensamiento y la estética de Oscar Wilde. El arte ha caído en la cárcel del realismo y ha perdido toda la libertad creativa. Y, para huir de este culto a los hechos, es necesario reivindicar el papel de la mentira y el artificio en las obras. Mediante un diálogo repleto de paradojas y de la ironía característica del autor, Oscar Wilde evidencia la necesidad de escapar de toda intención moralizadora en la obra artística. Puesto que no hay nada más real que el arte, este debe existir por sí mismo y evitar ser un reflejo de una realidad que no haría más que corromperlo. «Oscar Wilde tiene el poder de transformar el ensayo en ficción.» Luis Antonio De Villen
Decadent: On His Knees / Decadent (Dirty Sexy Rich #3)
by Alexx Andria“I knew I would learn how you taste, how you feel, how you climax so sweetly…but I couldn’t have known how quickly I would come to crave all of those things.”It will be a cold day in hell before wine heiress Alessandra Baroni lets go of her family’s Tuscan vineyard. No one could tempt Alessandra to sell…not even a devil as handsome, rich and irresistible as arrogant American Dante Donato. But the moment their bodies touch, there are sparks. Hot, dangerous sparks. And when it comes to Dante, this is one inferno Alessandra won’t be able to control.Donatos always play to win, and Dante is no exception. But Alessandra, a gorgeous, green-eyed Italian, is made of tempered steel. A worthy opponent. This time, Dante will need more than a little charm and a bucketload of money to get his way. He’ll need to play deliciously dirty—no matter the cost!Now they’re playing a lust-fueled game of give-and-take, taste and devour—and the stakes are getting wicked. But with this much heat, someone’s bound to get burned…unless one of these ice-cold hearts falls in love first!Sexy. Passionate. Bold. Discover Harlequin Dare, a new line of fun, edgy and sexually explicit romances for the fearless female.
Decadent (A Wicked Lovers Novel #2)
by Shayla BlackShe may not be what she seems... How can a virgin seeking happily-ever-after with a hot pop star who has a penchant for threesomes win her fantasy man? Kimber Edgington desperately needs a plan to convince Jesse McCall, who's been her secret crush since they spent a summer together as teenagers, that they are meant for each other. But all the tabloid stories about his sexual escapades make her feel oh so inadequate. But she's exactly what men want. Determined to prove she's woman enough for Jesse, Kimber turns to bodyguard Deke Trenton for sexual education. Bold and brash, Deke warns Kimber that playing with him is playing with fire. But he can't bear to imagine the innocent beauty in someone else's arms. So Deke and his super-sexy friend, Luc, take Kimber under their wings and dangerously close to the edge of ecstasy. Though she's saved herself for Jesse, Kimber soon learns he's not the man adept at stoking her aching, endless need. That's Deke, and he can't resist when Kimber begs for more--and more...e...
Decadent: Big Sky Pie #4 (Big Sky Pie #4)
by Adrianne Lee"Adrianne Lee always delivers!" ---Susan WiggsContractor Wade Reynolds is having a tough year. His cherry farm went bust, and his construction clients threaten to unhinge what's left of his sanity. But Wade's passion for life heats up when he's hired to remodel a new storefront next to Big Sky Pie -and he falls for the red-hot, bad girl who's setting up her catering shop there.Fresh off her own divorce, Roxy isn't looking for another relationship, just a spontaneous fling or three. Her contractor Wade looks as delicious as her specialty confections, but he's way too buttoned-up for a casual affair. Yet there's an ultra-sexy strength about him Roxy can't resist. What that man clearly needs is something decadent-like her...(50,000 words)
Decadent Aesthetics and the Acrobat in French Fin de siècle (Routledge Studies in Nineteenth Century Literature)
by Jennifer ForrestIn his discussion of clowns in nineteenth-century French painting from Jean-Léon Gérôme’s 1857 La Sortie du bal masqué to Georges Rouault, art historian Francis Haskell wondered why they are so sad. The myth of the sad clown as an allegory for the unappreciated artist found echoes in the work of literary counterparts like Charles Baudelaire and his "Vieux saltimbanque" who seeks in vain a responsive public. For some, the attraction of the acrobatic clown for the creative imagination may have been his ability to embody the plight of the artist: these artistes generally led an ambulatory and uncertain existence. Other artists and writers, however, particularly the Decadents, perceived in the circus acrobat – including the acrobatic clown – a conceptual and performative tool for liberating their points of view from the prison-house of aesthetic convention. If authors’ protagonists were themselves sometimes failures, their aesthetic innovations often produced exhilarating artistic triumphs. Among the works examined in this study are the circus posters of Jules Chéret, Thomas Couture’s Pierrot and Harlequin paintings, Honoré Daumier’s saltimbanque paintings, Edgar Degas’s Miss Lala au Cirque Fernando, Édouard Manet’s Un bar au Folies-Bergère, the pantomimes of the Hanlon-Lees troupe, and novels, short stories, and poems by Théodore de Banville, Edmond de Goncourt, J. K. Huysmans, Gustave Kahn, Jules Laforgue, Catulle Mendès, Octave Mirbeau, Jean Richepin, Edouard Rod, and Marcel Schwob.
The Decadent Countess
by Deborah MilesA case of mistaken identity...Young widow Miranda Fitzgibbon arrives in England to meet her late husband’s family, only to find she has been mistaken for her scandalous stepmother, the decadent countess. Playing up to the in-laws’ expectations, Miranda revels in her new role as the notoriously outspoken coquette.But then she clashes with her handsome, aloof brother-in-law Leo, the Duke of Belford. As Miranda’s confidence begins to falter, revealing a glimpse of the intriguing naiveté beneath her bravado, Leo is torn between pursuing this bewitching beauty and preserving his family’s reputation....
Decadent Desire
by Zuri DayThe reunion they've been dreaming of The youngest heir to a legendary Northern California dynasty is back in the family fold, gearing up to open his own therapy practice. Life's perfect-except for the miles that separate psychologist Julian Drake from his longtime love Nicki Long. So when the Broadway dancer makes a visit to their idyllic town, Julian is beyond thrilled. Desire reignites as he and Nicki reaffirm their commitment, ready more than ever for their happy ending. Relocating to New York was the toughest decision of Nicki's life-even if it meant realizing a childhood dream. Now she's finally reunited with the man she loves, but there's trouble in Paradise Cove. The danger that has followed Nicki west threatens everyone she cherishes most, including the seemingly untouchable Drake clan. With Julian's career-and her own life-at risk, Nicki's up against a deadly adversary that could end her future with the Drake of her dreams...
Decadent Dreams
by A. C. ArthurResist temptation...It seems as though Belinda Drayson-Jones has it all together. Smart and attractive, she is one of the most talented bakers at Lillian's, her family's famed Chicago patisserie. Belinda is one of those women who never shows up late, never makes a faux pas, never does anything that would raise someone's eyebrows. Yet perfection has its price, and the beautiful Ms. Drayson-Jones feels that something is missing from her life. And no one would ever guess the secret she's keeping....or give in to love?Malik Anthony knows plenty about keeping secrets. He has worked with Belinda for years and has been fighting his feelings just as long. Malik always considered her to be unattainable, until one night when their simmering desire suddenly reaches the boiling point. And if he isn't mistaken, Belinda is now coming on to him.What could be more irresistible than being seduced by the boss's granddaughter? What could be more perfect than giving in?
The Decadent Duke (The Peer of the Realm Trilogy #1)
by Virginia HenleyThe New York Times bestselling author of Notorious From the New York Times bestselling author comes an epic Regency love story, filled with all the sensuality, glitter, and drama that Virginia Henley?s readers have come to expect. Lady Georgina?s four sisters have all married prominent dukes or earls, and much to her dismay and frustration, she is expected to make an even better match. Georgina?s mother has no doubt who her daughter should marry: Francis Russell, Duke of Bedford. The dull duke does absolutely nothing for Georgina, but despite her best efforts, she finds herself engaged to marry him. But Georgina cannot deny the passionate sparks between herself and a different man?John Russell, the duke?s younger brother. . . .
Decadent Ecology in British Literature and Art, 1860–1910: Decay, Desire, and the Pagan Revival (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture)
by Dennis DenisoffCasting fresh light on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British art, literature, ecological science and paganism, Decadent Ecology reveals the pervasive influence of decadence and paganism on modern understandings of nature and the environment, queer and feminist politics, national identities, and changing social hierarchies. Combining scholarship in the environmental humanities with aesthetic and literary theory, this interdisciplinary study digs into works by Simeon Solomon, Algernon Swinburne, Walter Pater, Robert Louis Stevenson, Vernon Lee, Michael Field, Arthur Machen and others to address trans-temporal, trans-species intimacy; the vagabondage of place; the erotics of decomposition; occult ecology; decadent feminism; and neo-paganism. Decadent Ecology reveals the mutually influential relationship of art and science during the formulation of modern ecological, environmental, evolutionary and trans-national discourses, while also highlighting the dissident dynamism of new and recuperative pagan spiritualities - primarily Celtic, Nordic-Germanic, Greco-Roman and Egyptian - in the framing of personal, social and national identities.
Decadent Genealogies: The Rhetoric of Sickness from Baudelaire to D'Annunzio
by Barbara SpackmanBarbara Spackman here examines the ways in which decadent writers adopted the language of physiological illness and alteration as a figure for psychic otherness. By means of an ideological and rhetorical analysis of scientific as well as literary texts, she shows how the rhetoric of sickness provided the male decadent writer with an alibi for the occupation and appropriation of the female body.
Decadent Literature In Twentieth-century Japan
by Ikuho AmanoDecadence is a concept that designates a given historical moment as a phase of decay and valorizes the past as an irretrievable golden age. This study offers an innovative examination of a century of Japanese fiction through the analytical prism of decadence.
Decadent Orientalisms: The Decay of Colonial Modernity
by David FieniDecadent Orientalisms presents a sustained critique of the ways Orientalism and decadence have formed a joint discursive mode of the imperial imagination. Attentive to historical and literary configurations of language, race, religion, and power, Fieni shows the importance of understanding Western discourses of Eastern decline and obsolescence together with Arab and Islamic responses in which the language of decadence returns as a characteristic of the West.Taking seriously Edward Said’s claim that Orientalism is a “style of having power,” Fieni works historically through the aesthetic and ideological effects of Orientalist style, showing how it is at once comparative, descriptive, and performative. Orientalism, the book argues, relies upon decadence as the figure through which its positivist scientific claims become redistributed as speech acts—“truths” that establish dominance. Rather than attending to Orientalism as a repertoire of clichés and stereotypes, Decadent Orientalisms considers the systemic epistemological consequences of the diffuse, yet coherent network of institutions that have constituted Orientalism’s power.
Decadent Poetics
by Jason David Hall Alex MurrayDecadent Poetics has gathered together some of the most important scholars working in Victorian studies, with the ten essays here exploring the complex and vexed topic of decadent literature's formal characteristics. Invigorated by shifts in Victorian studies over the past ten years, this collection interrogates previously held assumptions around the nature of decadent form. The term 'poetics' conveys here not just the prosodic, but the multiplicitous forms of cultural production across the fin de siecle. From perfume to the post-human, theatre to attenuated textualities, these essays explore the ways in which the literary intersects with its others in the period. The range of writers studied here moves from those who now constitute a decadent canon - Oscar Wilde, 'Michael Field', Charles Baudelaire, Algernon Charles Swinburne and Ernest Dowson - to those whose work still inhabits the scholarly margins: A. E. Housman, Arthur Machen, Hubert Crackanthorpe and Graham R. Tomson. "
The Decadent Republic of Letters
by Matthew PotolskyWhile scholars have long associated the group of nineteenth-century French and English writers and artists known as the decadents with alienation, escapism, and withdrawal from the social and political world, Matthew Potolsky offers an alternative reading of the movement. In The Decadent Republic of Letters, he treats the decadents as fundamentally international, defined by a radically cosmopolitan ideal of literary sociability rather than an inward turn toward private aesthetics and exotic sensation.The Decadent Republic of Letters looks at the way Charles Baudelaire, Théophile Gautier, and Algernon Charles Swinburne used the language of classical republican political theory to define beauty as a form of civic virtue. The libertines, an international underground united by subversive erudition, gave decadents a model of countercultural affiliation and a vocabulary for criticizing national canon formation and the increasing state control of education. Decadent figures such as Joris-Karl Huysmans, Walter Pater, Vernon Lee, Aubrey Beardsley, and Oscar Wilde envisioned communities formed through the circulation of art. Decadents lavishly praised their counterparts from other traditions, translated and imitated their works, and imagined the possibility of new associations forged through shared tastes and texts. Defined by artistic values rather than language, geography, or ethnic identity, these groups anticipated forms of attachment that are now familiar in youth countercultures and on social networking sites.Bold and sophisticated, The Decadent Republic of Letters unearths a pervasive decadent critique of nineteenth-century notions of political community and reveals the collective effort by the major figures of the movement to find alternatives to liberalism and nationalism.
Decadent Romanticism: 1780-1914
by Kostas Boyiopoulos Mark SandyFor Decadent authors, Romanticism was a source of powerful imaginative revisionism, perversion, transition, and partial negation. But for all these strong Decadent reactions against the period, the cultural phenomenon of Decadence shared with Romanticism a mutual distrust of the philosophy of utilitarianism and the aesthetics of neo-Classicism. Reflecting on the interstices between Romantic and Decadent literature, Decadent Romanticism reassesses the diverse and creative reactions of Decadent authors to Romanticism between 1780 and 1914, while also remaining alert to the prescience of the Romantic imagination to envisage its own distorted, darker, perverted, other self. Creative pairings include William Blake and his Decadent critics, the recurring figure of the sphinx in the work of Thomas De Quincey and Decadent writers, and Percy Shelley with both Mathilde Blind and Swinburne. Not surprisingly, John Keats’s works are a particular focus, in essays that explore Keats’s literary and visual legacies and his resonance for writers who considered him an icon of art for art’s sake. Crucial to this critical reassessment are the shared obsessions of Romanticism and Decadence with subjectivity, isolation, addiction, fragmentation, representation, romance, and voyeurism, as well as a poetics of desire and anxieties over the purpose of aestheticism.
Decadent Subjects: The Idea of Decadence in Art, Literature, Philosophy, and Culture of the Fin de Siècle in Europe (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society)
by Charles BernheimerHonorable Mention for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies from the Modern Language AssociationCharles Bernheimer described decadence as a "stimulant that bends thought out of shape, deforming traditional conceptual molds." In this posthumously published work, Bernheimer succeeds in making a critical concept out of this perennially fashionable, rarely understood term.Decadent Subjects is a coherent and moving picture of fin de siècle decadence. Mature, ironic, iconoclastic, and thoughtful, this remarkable collection of essays shows the contradictions of the phenomenon, which is both a condition and a state of mind. In seeking to show why people have failed to give a satisfactory account of the term decadence, Bernheimer argues that we often mistakenly take decadence to represent something concrete, that we see as some sort of agent. His salutary response is to return to those authors and artists whose work constitutes the topos of decadence, rereading key late nineteenth-century authors such as Nietzsche, Zola, Hardy, Wilde, Moreau, and Freud to rediscover the very dynamics of the decadent. Through careful analysis of the literature, art, and music of the fin de siècle including a riveting discussion of the many faces of Salome, Bernheimer leaves us with a fascinating and multidimensional look at decadence, all the more important as we emerge from our own fin de siècle.
Decadent Subjects: The Idea of Decadence in Art, Literature, Philosophy, and Culture of the Fin de Siècle in Europe (Parallax: Re-visions Of Culture And Society Ser.)
by Charles BernheimerAn illuminating exploration of fin de siècle decadence “by a well-known authority in the areas of European literature, culture, and psychoanalysis” (Pre-Raphaelite Studies).The influential writer and scholar Charles Bernheimer described decadence as a “stimulant that bends thought out of shape, deforming traditional conceptual molds.” In this posthumously published work, Bernheimer succeeds in making a critical concept out of this perennially fashionable, rarely understood term.This remarkable collection of essays shows the contradictions of the phenomenon, which is both a condition and a state of mind. In seeking to show why people have failed to give a satisfactory account of the term decadence, Bernheimer argues that we often mistakenly take decadence to represent something concrete, that we see as some sort of agent. His salutary response is to return to those authors and artists whose work constitutes the topos of decadence, rereading key late nineteenth-century authors such as Nietzsche, Zola, Hardy, Wilde, Moreau, and Freud to rediscover the very dynamics of the decadent. Through careful analysis of the literature, art, and music of the fin de siècle—including a riveting discussion of the many faces of Salome—Bernheimer leaves us with a fascinating and multidimensional look at decadence.Honorable Mention for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies from the Modern Language Association
A Decadent Way To Die (A Savannah Reid Mystery #16)
by G. A. McKevettPlus-sized P.I. Savannah Reid prides herself on cracking even the toughest cases. But her latest investigation is leaving her hungry for answers as she tries to unmask the identity of a cunning, would-be killer. His prey? Legendary designer Helene Strauss, creator of the world-famous Helene doll. While Helene's brassy, take-no-prisoners style made her a huge success, it also made her quite a few enemies.Before long, Savannah is sure she has a handle on the case. But when two key players turn up dead in Helene's sizzling hot Jacuzzi, Savannah will have to start from scratch--and question everything she thought she knew about the Strausses' twisted family tree. . ."Superb." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "McKevett serves up plenty of action." --Kirkus"Fans of Diane Mott Davidson will appreciate this one." --Library Journal
Decadentes
by Javiera PazLa esperada continuación de Caín, una historia de amor y misterio que no dejará a nadie indiferente Con la intención de comenzar desde cero, Kaylin y Caín se mudan a Inglaterra para compartir una vida juntos. Enfocado en el campeonato internacional de boxeo, Caín sigue ascendiendo en su carrera y junto a Kaylin fijan nuevas metas personales. Pero no todo será fácil. Las sombras de su pasado volverán para buscarlo y la pareja tendrá que atravesar una serie de obstáculos para alcanzar la anhelada felicidad. ¿Logrará triunfar el amor?