Perennial Decay: On the Aesthetics and Politics of Decadence

by Liz Constable (Editor), Dennis Denisoff (Editor), Matthew Potolsky (Editor)

When Oscar Wilde was convicted of gross indecency in 1895, a reporter for the National Observer wrote that there was "not a man or a woman in the English-speaking world possessed of the treasure of a wholesome mind who is not under a deep debt of gratitude to the marquis of Queensberry for destroying the high Priest of the Decadents." But reports of the death of decadence were greatly exaggerated, and today, more than one hundred years after the famous trial and at the beginning of a new millennium, the phenomenon of decadence continues to be a significant cultural force.

Indeed, "decadence" in the nineteenth century, and in our own period, has been a concept whose analysis yields a broad set of associations. In Perennial Decay, Emily Apter, Charles Bernheimer, Sylvia Molloy, Michael Riffaterre, Barbara Spackman, Marc Weiner, and others extend the critical field of decadence beyond the traditional themes of morbidity, the cult of artificiality, exoticism, and sexual nonconformism. They approach the question of decadence afresh, reevaluating the continuing importance of late nineteenth-century decadence for contemporary literary and cultural studies.

Genres: Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[mdme ✖︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liz Constable, along with Charles Berheimer, have provided the most inclusive, complete, and concise survey of Decadence in art and literature, both in regards to modern and postmodern culture. I especially enjoyed Bernheimer's essay, "Unknowing Decadence." which has provided the best definition of Decadence as a thematic and theoretical concept, which extends beyond the conventional notion of aesthetic or motif. This book, scholarly and perhaps the most important in the field, conceives of art and culture as important aspects of our social history.

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read the Introduction but I'm excited to read further into this and see where all the arguments end up.