The Seduction of Thanatos: Gabriele D'Annunzio and the Decadent Death / Marja Härmänmaa. 12. The Twilight World: 1. Thermal Degeneration: Thermodynamics and the Heat-Death of the Universe in Victorian Science, Philosophy, and Culture / Mason Tattersall; 2. A Regenerative Decadence or a Decadent Regeneration: Challenges to Darwinian Determinism by French, Spanish, and Latin American Writers in the Fin-de-Siècle / Natalia Santamaría Laorden; 3. Late Antiquity as an Expression of Decadence in the Poetry of Constantine P. Cavafy and Stefan George / Anastasia Antonopoulou; 4. Decadence and Regeneration: Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales as a Tool for Social Change / Magali Fleurot -- Part II. The Seduction of Sickness: 5. Decadent Tropologies of Sickness / Pirjo Lyytikäinen; 6. Consuming and Consumed: Woman as Habituée in Eugène Grasset's Morphinomaniac / Abigail Susik; 7. Decadence, Melancholia, and the Making of Modernism in the Salome Fairy Tales of Strindberg, Wilde, and Ibsen / Kyle Mox -- Part III. Decadence and the Feminine: 8. Mariia Iakunchikova and the Roots of Decadence in Late-Nineteenth-Century Russian Modernism / Kristen M. Harkness; 9. The Spectral Salome: Salomania and Fin-de-Siècle Sexology and Racial Theory / Johannes Hendrikus Burgers; 10. "For the Strong-Minded Alone": Evolution, Female Atavism, and Degeneration in Aubrey Beardsley's Salomé / Gülru Çakmak -- Part IV. Two Studies of Death: 11. Death at Sea: Symbolism and Charles Cottet's Subjective Realism / Maura Coughlin; 12. The Seduction of Thanatos: Gabriele D'Annunzio and the Decadent Death / Marja Härmänmaa.
Summary:
"Decadence, Degeneration, and the End: Studies in the European Fin de Siècle provides a multidisciplinary overview of one of the more compelling cultural phenomena of the later nineteenth century. Degeneration and decay, both of bodies and civilizations, as well as illness, death, bizarre sexuality, and general morbidity, all became essential aspects of fin-de-siècle consciousness, manifesting themselves in a wide variety of literary genres, visual art forms and social practices. The studies range from the Mediterranean world to Scandinavia and Russia, with special emphasis on the artists and writers of France and Britain, and on subjects as diverse as Oscar Wilde, August Strindberg, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Aubrey Beardsley, the Nordic Decadents, the perceived decline of Latin civilization, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Max Nordau, Charles Cottet's paintings of mourning widows, Stefan George, the consumptive Russian artist Mariia Iakunchikova, advertising illustrations glorifying morphine addicts, decadent sexological theory, Salome in all of her outrageous incarnations, and the heat-death of the universe"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.