The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Decadence

Decadence: Broadly defined, moral decline or the decline of a great artistic or literary period. The literary application of decadence denotes a lapse in the quality of works associated with a particular literary era or movement. Decadent phases tend to be characterized by bizarre or esoteric subject matter as well as a self-consciously refined style that emphasizes polish and ornamentation, elevating technique — even artifice — over substance. For instance, “silver age” Latin literature written during the reign of Trajan (A.D. 98—117) is often considered decadent in comparison to the golden age literature produced during the reign of Augustus (27 B.C.—A.D. 14).

When capitalized, Decadence refers to a literary movement strongest in France but also prevalent in England and America toward the end of the nineteenth century. The Decadent Movement is closely associated with the Aesthetic Movement; indeed, the term is often used to refer to the last phase or the decline (depending on the user’s perspective) of Aestheticism. Like members of the Aesthetic Movement, Decadents extolled l’art pour l’art (art for art’s sake). In addition to rejecting traditional artistic and aesthetic norms, they sought to flout conventional morality in their dress, behavior, and sexual practices. Decadence is also closely associated with fin de siècle (“end of the century”), a term connoting the boredom and indolence that many Decadents expressed. French writer and critic Théophile Gautier outlined many of the tenets of Decadence in his preface to an edition of Charles Baudelaire’s volume of poems Les fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil) (1868); subsequently, the Decadents published a short-lived journal entitled Le décadent (1886—89). Prominent French Decadents included Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine; English adherents included Aubrey Beardsley, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and Oscar Wilde, who was noted for epigrammatic statements reflecting both the wit and dissatisfaction of the movement. Examples include “When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers” (An Ideal Husband [1895]), and “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it” (Lady Windermere’s Fan [1893]).

FURTHER EXAMPLES: George Moore’s poetry collection Flowers of Passion (1878); Joris-Karl Huysmans’s novel À rebours (Against the Grain or Against Nature) (1884); Wilde’s essay “The Decay of Lying” (1889).