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Fin-de-Si ècle

Fin-de-Si ècle. Aestheticism & Decadence in late c19 Britain. Fin-de-si ècle. “End of the Era” – felt during the time, sense of ending Distinct period between Victorian and Modernist periods Age of Paradoxes Sense of exhaustion, loss of vitality – “Culture” enervated

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Fin-de-Si ècle

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

  2. Fin-de-siècle • “End of the Era” – felt during the time, sense of ending • Distinct period between Victorian and Modernist periods • 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 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 • Ultra-refined sophistication of taste • Sex and the forbidden pervading much of literary output (p. 1888) • Mainstream believed Decadence heralded collapse of Western Civ(p. 1887)

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

  6. 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)

  7. Upcoming lecture by Merlin Holland, Wilde’s grandson

  8. The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) • Epigrammatic – series of witty statements that can stand on their own • 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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