It is a feat to demystify decadence genially while dealing with
unsavory material usually presented complicitously. But Whissen
achieves even more. He is not looking at counterculture literature
but at mainstream literature in which the reader either senses
something decadent in the writer's attitude or identifies some
rhetorical device associated with the decadence. . . . He focuses
chiefly on authors who have been studied from other perspectives
(e.g., Gide, Mann, James, Dinesen) or who have hardly been studied
at all (e.g., Maugham, Firbank, Capote, Suesskind, Stephen King).
Choice As a distinct literary movement, decadence made its brief
appearance in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. As a
theme and a philosophical posture, however, it continues to
maintain a hold on the Western literary imagination. The first
writer to examine the pervasive influence of decadence on modern
literature, Whissen approaches the decadent vision as an attempt to
come to terms with a world in decline, rather than as a transient
literary fad. He explores the ways in which decadence functions not
only in modern literature but in modern life, arguing that if we
fail to notice the elements of decadence in literature, it is
because they are now such an accepted part of our reality that we
do not recognize them as decadent. Whissen discusses two major
strains of decadence that originated in Oscar Wilde's day and have
continued to influence modern literature. One is the decadent work,
a narrative infused with a conscious, committed self-indulgence
that serves both as solace and as a form of rebellion against the
perceived ugliness and hypocrisy of the modern world. The other
strain includes works that have decadence as their theme, such as
Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. In an analysis of the
prototypic French decadent novel, Huysmans' Against Nature, the
author identifies the primary elements that make up the decadent
temper: narcissism, masochism, irony, alienation, sophistication,
vanity, sensitivity, nihilism, and a taste for uncommon or intense
experience. He traces the development of these elements in works by
Wilde, Henry James, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann, and Isak Dinesen, as
well as two contemporary writers--Patrick Suskind and Paul Rudnick.
A significant contribution to literary scholarship and criticism,
this book will be of interest for courses or studies in modern and
contemporary Western literature, humanities, social history, and
social psychology.
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