106-060 Decadence

Usually 25 points of first-year English, see Prerequisites, or first-year European studies, see Prerequisites.

This subject examines decadence as an historical, textual, sexual and cultural category, focusing on late 19th and early 20th century literature in terms of recent theoretical perspectives. Topics include interrelations between European and English varieties of literary decadence and aestheticism; art for art's sake theories of aesthetic production; the relationship between lifestyle and commodity culture; theories of degeneration, and transgressive sexualities. Students who complete this subject successfully should have acquired a first-hand acquaintance with some representative examples of decadent writing, and an understanding of the controversies provoked by the original publication of decadent writing and later reconsiderations of it.

Class participation, and written work totalling 4000 words.

A subject reader including poetry by Charles Baudelaire and Algernon Swinburne and Renée Vivien's A Woman Appeared To Me will be available.

• J-K Huysmans, A rebours (Against Nature). OUP.
• H James, The Spoils of Poynton. Penguin.
• T Mann, Death in Venice. Penguin.
• Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs. Penguin.
• H G Wells, The Time Machine. Heinemann.
• O Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Penguin.