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Fin-de-Siècle Aestheticism & Decadence: A Cultural Transition

Explore the late 19th-century era of Aestheticism & Decadence, a precursor to Modernism. Discover the paradoxes, autonomy of artists, and new gender roles emerging at the "end of the era." Dive into literature focused on images, autonomy of artists, and exploration of social norms, such as in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest."

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Fin-de-Siècle Aestheticism & Decadence: A Cultural Transition

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  1. Fin-de-Siècle late c19 Aestheticism & Decadence

  2. Fin-de-siècle • “End of the Era” – felt during the time, sense of ending • Distinct moment in the late Victorian period (ca. 1885-1901); precursor to Modernism • Age of Paradoxes • Sense of exhaustion, loss of vitality – “Culture” enervated • Literary focus on images rather than events(cf. C20 Modernism) • Belief in autonomy of artist (Elizabeth Barrett Browning?) (p. 1888) • New possibilities for gender roles and self-invention (p. 1888) • “Manly Woman” and “Womanly Man” • “New Woman” -- Intellectually and sexually independent • “Aesthete” – interested in finery, witty dialogue, and manners – FLAMBOYANCE

  3. AESTHETICISM • Reacted by inverting many of the Victorian values (p. 1885) • “Art for art’s sake” (not moral concern for public good) • Appetite for the sensuous, desire for the intense (images pp.1886-87) • Exquisite attention to surface and trite detail

  4. decadence • Tawdry subject matter • Amoral attitude, or at least vs. traditional morality •  FLAUNTING it • Sympathetic to social outcasts • Ultra-refined sophistication of taste • Sex & the forbidden pervade much of literary output (p. 1888) • I.e. longing for “forbidden fruit” • Mainstream believed Decadence heralded collapse of Western Civ(p. 1887)

  5. Alone (1896) – Henri de toulouse-lautrec

  6. The climax (1893) – aubreybeardsley

  7. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) • Goal of social evolution is “joyous individualism” (p. 1819) • Inversion of traditional Victorian Values: treat serious things trivially, trivial things with studied seriousness (p. 1820) • Relatively open about homosexuality while it was still illegal • Trial, prison, harsh end of life (p. 1821)

  8. The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) • Epigrammatic – series of witty statements that can stand on their own • Paradoxical – Revels in self-contradictions that nonetheless express truth • Satire on the Victorian ideal of Earnestness as character trait plus moral philosophy (p. 1829) • Neat resolution of popular British C19 Drama • Comedy in the classical sense: begin with error & confusion, end with knowledge, recognition, self-discovery (also Comic). • Questions social hierarchies based on birth • Explores fictions of personality • Men freely explore fictive selves yet are completely controlled by women • Anticipates modernist Theater of the Absurd

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