Decadent movement 5678514 224950214 2008-07-11T03:56:14Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other In 19th century [[European literature|European]] and especially [[French literature of the 19th century|French literature]], [[decadence]] was the name given, first by hostile critics, and then triumphantly adopted by some writers themselves, to a number of late nineteenth century ''[[fin de siècle]]'' writers who were associated with [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]] or the [[Aesthetic movement]] and who relished artifice over the earlier Romantics' naïve view of nature (see [[Rousseau]]). Some of these writers were influenced by the tradition of the [[Gothic novel]] and by the poetry and fiction of [[Edgar Allan Poe]]. This concept of decadence dates from the eighteenth century, especially from [[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]], and was taken up by critics as a term of abuse after [[Désiré Nisard]] used it against [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Romanticism]] in general. A later generation of Romantics, such as [[Théophile Gautier]] and [[Charles Baudelaire]] took the word as a badge of pride, as a sign of their rejection of what they saw as banal "progress". In the 1880s a group of [[French literature|French writers]] referred to themselves as decadents. The classic [[novel]] from this group is [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]]' ''[[À rebours|Against Nature]]'', often seen as the first great Decadent work, though others attribute this honor to Baudelaire's works. In Britain the leading figure associated with the Decadent movement was [[Oscar Wilde]]. As a literary movement, Decadence is now regarded as a transition between [[Romanticism]] and [[Modernism]]. The [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist movement]] has frequently been confused with the decadent movement. Several young writers were derisively referred to in the press as "decadent" in the mid 1880s. [[Jean Moréas]]' manifesto was largely a response to this polemic. A few of these writers embraced the term while most avoided it. Although the esthetics of Symbolism and Decadence can be seen as overlapping in some areas, the two remain distinct. == Artists of the decadent movement == {{col-start}} {{col-break}} * [[Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly]] * [[Charles Baudelaire|Charles Pierre Baudelaire]] * [[Franz von Bayros]] * [[Aubrey Beardsley]] * [[Max Beerbohm]] * [[Remy de Gourmont]] * [[Ernest Dowson]] * [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] * [[J. K. Huysmans]] * [[Vojislav Ilić]] {{col-break}} * [[Comte de Lautréamont]] * [[Guy de Maupassant]] * [[Gustave Moreau]] * [[Edvard Munch]] * [[Rachilde]] * [[Odilon Redon]] * [[Arthur Rimbaud]] * [[Gérard de Nerval]] * [[Georges Rodenbach]] * [[Paul Verlaine]] {{col-break}} * [[Félicien Rops]] * [[Octave Mirbeau]] * [[Franz von Stuck]] * [[Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam]] * [[Oscar Wilde]] * [[M.P. Shiel]] * [[Eric Stenbock]] * [[Arthur Symons]] * [[Arne Garborg]] * [[Anton Chekhov]] {{col-end}} ==Bibliography== * [[Mario Praz]], ''[[The Romantic Agony]]'', 1930 ISBN 0-19-281061-8 * [[Philippe Jullian]], ''Esthétes et Magiciens'' 1969; ''Dreamers of Decadence'', 1971. {{Refimprove|date=September 2006}} {{Schools of poetry}} [[Category:Decadent literature| ]] [[Category:Art movements]] [[Category:Literary movements]] [[Category:19th century]] [[Category:Symbolism (arts)]] [[be:Дэкаданс]] [[de:Dekadenzdichtung]] [[es:Decadentismo]] [[fr:Décadentisme]] [[it:Decadentismo]] [[nl:Decadentisme]] [[ja:デカダン派]] [[pl:Dekadentyzm]] [[ru:Декадентство]]