The Oxford Handbook of Decadence

Jane Desmarais, David Weir (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

742 Seiten

2022
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-006695-6 (ISBN)

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The meaning of decadence varies with context, depending on what (or who) is understood to have declined, decayed, or degenerated. These negative meanings are familiar from history (the decline and fall of Rome), sociology (the decay of communities), morality (the degeneration of values), and more, including such popular conceptions of decadence as excess and corruption. At the same time, all of this negative decadence has found positive cultural expression, principally in literature, through the work of such celebrated nineteenth-century decadents as Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, and many others. This volume takes the study of decadence beyond these canonical literary works to explore the phenomenon in broader historical, geographical, and cultural contexts.

In thirty-five chapters by esteemed scholars from a range of disciplines, the Oxford Handbook of Decadence addresses different critical periods, such as classical antiquity, various ages of empire, the interwar era in the twentieth century, and contemporary times, as well as key places--France, Belgium, Britain, Italy, Germany, the Nordic nations, Russia and Ukraine, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan--and such genres as the novel, the short story, drama, the essay, prose poetry, and film. The volume also considers decadence more broadly as a culture not limited to literature by tracing its manifestations in such material forms as book design, fashion, interior decoration, and architecture, as well as through the experiential register of the senses: decadent vision, sound, smell, taste, and touch are all reflected, respectively, in painting, music, perfume, cuisine, and feeling. Finally, the chapters explore the theoretical resonance of decadence in such fields as theology, science, ecology, politics, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. By illuminating the various ways decadence can be construed, the Handbook offers an in-depth and original exploration into the paradox of decadence: a culture that draws its creative energy from the idea of decline.

Jane Desmarais is Professor of English and Director of the Decadence Research Centre at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research is primarily focused on nineteenth-century literature and visual culture, specifically literary and visual decadence, and Anglo-French cultural relations at the fin de siècle. Her publications include Decadence and Literature, co-edited with David Weir (2019), Monsters Under Glass: A Cultural History of Hothouse Flowers from 1850 to the Present (2018), Arthur Symons: Selected Early Poems, co-edited with Chris Baldick (2017), and Decadence and the Senses, co-edited with Alice Condé (2017). David Weir is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Cooper Union in New York City. He is the author of ten books, including three on the topic of decadence: Decadence and the Making of Modernism (1995), Decadent Culture in the United States (2009), and Decadence: A Very Short Introduction (2018). He has also written the "Decadence" entry for the second edition of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2014) and edited, with Jane Desmarais, Decadence and Literature (2019).

Introduction: Decadence, Culture, and Society
David Weir and Jane Desmarais

Part I: Periods

1. Classical Antiquity: Unlikely Decadent Prototypes in Republican Rome
Shushma Malik

2. Ages of Empire: Pinnacles of Decline
Norman Vance

3. Fin de Siècle, Gilded Age, or Belle Époque: Different Endings to the Same Century
Shearer West

4. The Interwar Period: Legacies of Decadence
Melanie Hawthorne

5. Contemporary Contexts: Decadence Today and Tomorrow
Alice Condé

Part II: Places

6. France: The Rise of Modern Decadence
Bénédicte Coste

7. Belgium: Decadent Land, Barbarian Language
Clément Dessy

8. Britain and Ireland: Decadence beyond London
Alex Murray

9. Italy: Decadent Dichotomies in a Disruptive Age
Lara Raffaelli

10. Germany: Decadence from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Weimar Republic
Katharina Herold

11. Nordic Cultures: From Wilderness to Metropolitan Decadence
Pirjo LyytikÄinen

12. Eastern Europe: The "New People" of Decadence
Sasha Dovzhyk

13. Turkey: Ottoman Tanzimat and the Decadence of Empire
Özen Nergis Dolcerocca

14. Japan: Decadence and Japonisme
Stefano Evangelista

Part III: Genres

15. The Decadent Novel: Generic Inversions
Kristin Mahoney

16. The Decadent Short Story: Forms of the Morbid
Kostas Boyiopoulos

17. Decadent Theater: New Women and "The Eye of the Beholder"
Sos Eltis

18. Essays: Defending and Describing Decadence
Nick Freeman

19. Prose Poetry: All the Rest Is Literature
Jane Desmarais and David Weir

20. Cinema: Adapting Decadence
David Weir

Part IV: Materialities

21. Book Arts: The Decadent Gesamtkunstwerk
Kirsten MacLeod

22. Fashion: Decadent Stylings
Catherine Spooner

23. Interior Decoration: Designing Decadence
Jessica Gossling

24. Architecture: Constructing Decadence
Lori Smithey

Part V: Senses

25. Vision: Decadence in Symbolist Art of the Fin de Siècle
Vivien Greene

26. Hearing: Bodies Resounding in Decadent Literature
Fraser Riddell

27. Smell: Perfume and Olfaction
Catherine Maxwell

28. Taste: Savoring Decadence
David Weir and Jane Desmarais

29. Touch: Unfeeling Decadence
Jane Desmarais

Part VI: Theories

30. Theology: Decadent Aesthetics, Anglo-Catholicism, and Ritual
Matthew Bradley

31. Science: Entropy, Degeneration, and Decadent Self-Destruction
Jordan Kistler

32. Ecology: The Vital Forces of Decay
Dennis Denisoff

33. Philosophy: Post-Kantian Narratives of Decadence
Andrew Huddleston

34. Psychoanalysis: From Degeneration to Regeneration
Jean-Michel Rabaté

35. Politics: Ideologies of Decadence
Neville Morley

Erscheinungsdatum	23.06.2022
Reihe/Serie	Oxford Handbooks
Zusatzinfo	78
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	253 x 179 mm
Gewicht	1438 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10	0-19-006695-4 / 0190066954
ISBN-13	978-0-19-006695-6 / 9780190066956
Zustand	Neuware