Author: British Museum. Department of Printed Books
Publisher:
Published: 1903
Total Pages: 652
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: British Museum. Department of Printed Books
Publisher:
Published: 1946
Total Pages: 628
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author:
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Published: 1972
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Jane Desmarais
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2019-08-22
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 1108592406
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Decadence and Literature explains how the concept of decadence developed since Roman times into a major cultural trope with broad explanatory power. No longer just a term of opprobrium for mannered art or immoral behaviour, decadence today describes complex cultural and social responses to modernity in all its forms. From the Roman emperor's indulgence in luxurious excess as both personal vice and political control, to the Enlightenment libertine's rational pursuit of hedonism, to the nineteenth-century dandy's simultaneous delight and distaste with modern urban life, decadence has emerged as a way of taking cultural stock of major social changes. These changes include the role of women in forms of artistic expression and social participation formerly reserved for men, as well as the increasing acceptance of LGBTQ+ relationships, a development with a direct relationship to decadence. Today, decadence seems more important than ever to an informed understanding of contemporary anxieties and uncertainties.