Book contents
- Decadence
- Decadence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Decadent Histories
- Chapter 1 Nineteenth-Century Decadence and Neoclassical Aesthetics
- Chapter 2 British Decadence and Renaissance Italy
- Chapter 3 ‘Rather a Delicate Subject’
- Chapter 4 Fighting Like Cats and Dogs
- Chapter 5 Varieties of Decadent Religion
- Chapter 6 The New Woman and Decadent Gender Politics
- Chapter 7 Decadence, Darwinism, Science and Technological Modernity
- Chapter 8 Decadence and Politics
- Chapter 9 Seeds of Discord
- Chapter 10 Decadent Poetics after Swinburne
- Chapter 11 Theatre and Decadence
- Chapter 12 ‘Restless Mystical Ardours’
- Chapter 13 Decadence in Painting
- Chapter 14 Decadent Poetry and Translation
- Chapter 15 Spanish American Literature and the Transatlantic Dimensions of Decadence
- Chapter 16 Decadent America 1890–1930
- Chapter 17 Russian and Czech Decadence
- Chapter 18 A Politics of Modernism in the Poetics of Decadence
- Chapter 19 Camp Modernism and Decadence
- Chapter 20 Making Decadence New
- Chapter 21 Writing Decadent Lives and Letters
- Chapter 22 Decadence in the Time of AIDS
- Index
Chapter 1 - Nineteenth-Century Decadence and Neoclassical Aesthetics
Androgyny, Ambiguity and Collecting Culture*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2020
- Decadence
- Decadence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Decadent Histories
- Chapter 1 Nineteenth-Century Decadence and Neoclassical Aesthetics
- Chapter 2 British Decadence and Renaissance Italy
- Chapter 3 ‘Rather a Delicate Subject’
- Chapter 4 Fighting Like Cats and Dogs
- Chapter 5 Varieties of Decadent Religion
- Chapter 6 The New Woman and Decadent Gender Politics
- Chapter 7 Decadence, Darwinism, Science and Technological Modernity
- Chapter 8 Decadence and Politics
- Chapter 9 Seeds of Discord
- Chapter 10 Decadent Poetics after Swinburne
- Chapter 11 Theatre and Decadence
- Chapter 12 ‘Restless Mystical Ardours’
- Chapter 13 Decadence in Painting
- Chapter 14 Decadent Poetry and Translation
- Chapter 15 Spanish American Literature and the Transatlantic Dimensions of Decadence
- Chapter 16 Decadent America 1890–1930
- Chapter 17 Russian and Czech Decadence
- Chapter 18 A Politics of Modernism in the Poetics of Decadence
- Chapter 19 Camp Modernism and Decadence
- Chapter 20 Making Decadence New
- Chapter 21 Writing Decadent Lives and Letters
- Chapter 22 Decadence in the Time of AIDS
- Index
Summary
The complex mix of transgression and conservativism in the sexual politics of Decadence is well explored through the Decadent turn back to the ancient world. Looking back to antiquity at the end of the nineteenth century was an complex aesthetic performance, reflecting both genuflection to traditional cultural authority and transgression of modern political frameworks. The Decadent imagination was interested in the aesthetics of collecting. Decadent writers became fascinated by androgynous and hermaphroditic bodily forms, which they viewed as a symbol of decadent collecting culture – an assemblage of pleasurable, sensuous experiences. But the ambiguously gendered body of ancient art, so venerated by Decadent writers, revealed the ambivalences of their gender politics.
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- Information
- DecadenceA Literary History, pp. 18 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020