CMPL 233 - The Literature of Decadence: The Art of Sensation

FC ARHU CD

4 credits
The literature of decadence flourished in the waning decades of the nineteenth century as part of a widespread reaction to the decline of the West that gave rise to avant-garde movements across Europe. Rejecting associations with the beautiful and the good, it focused instead on decay and decline. We will examine the works of Russia’s decadent writers and the European authors that influenced and responded to them, focusing on the movement’s debts to nineteenth-century Russian literature, critical outrage to the movement across Europe, and the influence of decadence on other modernist movements, including the visual arts, theater, dance, and film.
This course is cross-listed with RUSS 233