Read complete books and articles on: Decadence in Literature

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12 of the Best Books and Articles on: Decadence in Literature

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Devil's Advocates: Decadence in Modern Literature » Read Now
by Thomas Reed Whissen. 134 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

"It is a feat to demystify decadence genially while dealing with unsavory material usually presented complicitously. But Whissen achieves even more. He is not looking at counterculture literature but at mainstream literature in which the reader either senses something decadent in the writer's...
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"It is a feat to demystify decadence genially while dealing with unsavory material usually presented complicitously. But Whissen achieves even more. He is not looking at counterculture literature but at mainstream literature in which the reader either senses something decadent in the writer's attitude or identifies some rhetorical device associated with the decadence. . . . He focuses chiefly on authors who have been studied from other perspectives (e.g., Gide, Mann, James, Dinesen) or who have hardly been studied at all (e.g., Maugham, Firbank, Capote, Suesskind, Stephen King)." Choice
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2.

Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism » Read Now
by Matei Calinescu. 402 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Literature, Entire Library
3.

Decadence and the 1890s » Read Now
by Ian Fletcher. 216 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
4.

The Hero in French Decadent Literature » Read Now
by George Ross Ridge. 195 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...boulevard. Hence in the popular mind the literature of the decadence, exuding...Concern with decadence was, of course, not new in French literature. Rousseau...The term "...
5.

In Defense of Reason ("Primitivism and Decadence" begins on p. 90) » Read Now
by Yvor Winters. 611 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
6.

A Tradition of Subversion: The Prose Poem in English from Wilde to Ashbery (Chap. 1 "The Prose Poem as a Decadent Genre") » Read Now
by Margueritte S. Murphy. 246 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

From its inception in nineteenth-century France, the prose poem has embraced an aesthetic of shock and innovation rather than tradition and convention. In this suggestive study, Margueritte S. Murphy both explores the history of this genre in Anglo-American literature and provides a model for...
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From its inception in nineteenth-century France, the prose poem has embraced an aesthetic of shock and innovation rather than tradition and convention. In this suggestive study, Margueritte S. Murphy both explores the history of this genre in Anglo-American literature and provides a model for reading the prose poem, irrespective of language or national literature. Murphy argues that the prose poem is an inherently subversive genre, one that must perpetually undermine prosaic conventions in order to validate itself as authentically "other". At the same time, each prose poem must to some degree suggest a traditional prose genre in order to subvert it successfully. The prose poem is thus of special interest as a genre in which the traditional and the new are brought inevitably and continually into conflict. Beginning with a discussion of the French prose poem and its adoption in England by the Decadents, Murphy examines the effects of this association on later poets such as T.S. Eliot. She also explores the perception of the prose poem as an androgynous genre. Then, with a sensitivity to the sociopolitical nature of language, she draws on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin to illuminate the ideology of the genre and explore its subversive nature. The bulk of the book is devoted to insightful readings of William Carlos Williams's Kora in Hell, Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons, and John Ashbery's Three Poems. As notable examples of the American prose poem, these works demonstrate the range of this genre's radical and experimental possibilities.
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7.

Neurosis and Narrative: The Decadent Short Fiction of Proust, Lorrain, and Rachilde » Read Now
by Renee A. Kingcaid. 212 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Semiotics of Decadence We do...look far in French literature for a test...producing a literature devoted to disease? In "TheLiterary Concept of Decadence,"...
8.

Figures of Transition: A Study of British Literature at the End of the Nineteenth Century (1939) ("Writers of the Decadence" begins on p. 249) » Read Now
by Granville Hicks. 328 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...of literature and literature as an aid to the...I am interested in both parts of the...evangelicalism, at least in their broader forms...find contemporary literature full...
9.

From Gautier to Eliot, the Influence of France on English Literature 1851-1939 (Discussion of decadence in literature begins on p. 110) » Read Now
by Enid Starkie. 236 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
10.

A Revolution of the Spirit: Crisis of Value in Russia, 1890-1924 (Chap. 3 "Complex Questions: Our Imaginary Decadence") » Read Now
by Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Marian Schwartz. 349 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

ô. . . this is an excellent collection which will serve well as a textbook or as a general introduction to the history of the religious renaissance among the pre-revolutionary Russian intelligentsia.ö -Modern Greed Studies Yearbook The spiritual revival that is sweeping the Soviet Union today had...
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ô. . . this is an excellent collection which will serve well as a textbook or as a general introduction to the history of the religious renaissance among the pre-revolutionary Russian intelligentsia.ö -Modern Greed Studies Yearbook The spiritual revival that is sweeping the Soviet Union today had its genesis in the religious renaissance of the early 20th century. In both cases, it was lay intellectuals, disenchanted with simplistic positivism and materialism, who adapted Russian orthodoxy to modern life. Their ideas reverberated, not only in religion and philosophy, but in art, literature, painting, theater and film. Banned by the Soviet government in 1922, the writings of the religious renaissance were rediscovered in the Brezhnev era by a new generation of Soviet intellectuals disillusioned with Marxism. Circulating from hand to hand in illegal typewritten editions (samizdat), they exerted an evergrowing influence on Soviet society, from the very top down to ordinary people. Under the new policy of glasnost, the government itself is currently reprinting their works. The selections included in this volume reflect the profundity and breadth of their thought and are presented in English for the first time. The recognition of the universal need and significance of spiritual values and ideals united this otherwise heterogeneous group and bears witness to the diversity of their approach to the basic issues of the human condition. The centrality of these lay intellectualsÆ concerns transcends the specifics of the historical situation in early 20th century Russia and makes their writings relevant to the universal human condition. In order of appearance, the selections are: VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV, The Enemy from the East, The Russian National Ideal; NIKOLAI GROT, On the True Tasks of Philosophy; SERGEI DIAGHILEV, Complex Questions; VASILLY V. ROZANOV, On Sweetest Jesus and the Bitter Fruits of the World; NIKOLAI BERDIAEV, Socialism as Religion; SERGEI BULGAKOV, An Urgent Task; VIACHISLAV IVANOV, Crisis of Individualism, GEORGII CHULKOV, On Mystical Anarchism; DMITRI S. MEREZHKOVSKY, Revolution and Religion, The Jewish Question As a Russian Question; GEORGII FLOROVSKY, In the World of Quests and Wanderings; PAVEL NOVGORODTSEV, The Essence of the Russian Orthodox Consciousness; PETR STRUVE, The Intelligentsia and the National Face; ANDREI BELY, Revolution and Culture; ALEKSANDR BLOK, Catiline; EVGENY TRUBETSKOI, The Bolshevist Utopia and the Religious Movement.
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11.

Rachilde: Decadence, Gender and the Woman Writer » Read Now
by Diana Holmes. 231 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Prosecuted for obscenity in her novel Monsieur Venus, Marguerite Eymery (pen name Rachilde), an apparently genteel young woman from a provincial bourgeois family, burst onto the French literary scene in 1884 amid scandal. This story of a sadistic transvestite and her pretty male lover was the first...
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Prosecuted for obscenity in her novel Monsieur Venus, Marguerite Eymery (pen name Rachilde), an apparently genteel young woman from a provincial bourgeois family, burst onto the French literary scene in 1884 amid scandal. This story of a sadistic transvestite and her pretty male lover was the first in a long series of novels, plays and stories dealing often in the most macabre and sensationalistic terms with sadism, gender inversion, and sexual desire.At the heart of the French literary world, Rachilde's life and writing defied patriarchal rules, particularly in relation to female sexuality, but she consistently and vehemently rejected feminism. Her extraordinary life and work, including a vast output as a literary reviewer, offer a prism through which to view the vibrant social and cultural history of France from the belle époque to the Second World War. This book is the first serious critical study of Rachilde's work. Exploring the interwoven themes of French naturalism, modernism, decadence and feminism, it will be essential reading for anyone interested in French culture, literature and sexuality at the turn of the twentieth century.
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12.

The Lure of the Modern: Writing Modernism in Semicolonial China, 1917-1937 (Chap. 4 "The Libidinal and the National: The Morality of Decadence in Yu Dafu, Teng Gu, and Others") » Read Now
by Shu-Mei Shih. 427 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

"Quite apart from her contributions as a literary critic, Shu-mei Shih is able to historicize literary developments of the period most persuasively. Her analysis of Shanghai, the city, and the literary movement it spawned, is crafted with great sensitivity to both history and literature. In many...
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"Quite apart from her contributions as a literary critic, Shu-mei Shih is able to historicize literary developments of the period most persuasively. Her analysis of Shanghai, the city, and the literary movement it spawned, is crafted with great sensitivity to both history and literature. In many ways, it is the most inclusive historical study of modern Chinese literature in its formative period."--Prasenjit Duara, author of "Rescuing History from the Nation"
"This is the most thoroughly researched study of Chinese modernism published to date. The author's theoretical interventions greatly enrich our understanding of colonial modernity and the stakes of comparison in cross-cultural studies. The book is a major contribution to modern Chinese literary studies and comparative literature."--Lydia Liu, editor of "Tokens of Exchange"
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