Symbolism, Decadence and the Fin de Siècle

Patrick McGuinness is Fellow and Tutor in French at Jesus College, Oxford.

"The joy of the book is its delightful range of subjects and their inevitable interrelations . . . This is a very important book, and one that should certainly not be left to French Studies alone. It goes a long way towards making sense of a period of literary production that has suffered either from relentless simplification or from meaningless vaguening. The caricature of French Symbolism and Decadence, a product of the English 'Nineties, the Wilde- and Moore-filtered naughtiness and aestheticism, corresponds little to the riven, multifarious and highly differentiated cultural field McGuinness's book reveals to us. His finely written introduction provides ample background and context and offers some illuminating judgements, and the book itself is handsome and beautifully produced. In short, its substance and its methodologies are various and interdisciplinary, and its scope is consequently of vital importance to anyone interested in cultural modernity." (PN Review, Vol. 142, 2001)"This impressive collection of fifteen essays offers a richly suggestive exploration of the multiple manifestations of Symbolism and Decadence and sheds new light on exchanges between the French avant-garde and their European neighbours. The studies are not limited to the purely literary, but take in a wide range of cultural manifestations which includes the dance, theatre, painting, music and film . . . The volume succeeds in providing a thoughtful, wide-ranging overview of this complex period and will appeal especially to all who are interested in aesthetic cross-currents. Not the least attractive feature is its choice of telling illustrations." (Modern Language Review, Vol. 97, no. 2, 2002)"Subtitled 'French and European Perspectives', this volume is written essentially by British scholars. Nine of the fifteen focus on France, while the other six explore the various ripples which spread from Paris to Brussels, Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, Rome and beyond. To widen the perspectives in this way is no mere nod towards today's increasingly integrated Europe, but a strong recognition that literary movements have often moved without passports and beyond language frontiers . . . This is an ambitious and impressive collection, with substantial endnotes and a five-page index." (New Zealand Journal of French Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1)"A valuable reference work on a number of aspects of the period—a collection of useful essays" (Modern and Contemporary France, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2002)“. . . compelling collection of fifteen essays by key scholars in and beyond French studies . . .” (French Studies, Vol. LV1.3, 2002)

• Contents: Part 1: Mallarme and the "siecle finissant", Peter Dayan; disinterested Narcissus - the play of politics in decadent form, Jennifer Birkett; experiment in women's writing in the "fin de siecle", Alison Finch; the poetry of symbolism and decadence, Clive Scott; the difficult distance - Mallarme and the symbolist stage, Michael Holland; the kinaesthetics of chance - Mallarme's "Un Coup de des" and avant-garde choreography, Dee Reynolds; Villiers, Verne, Lumiere - the business of immortality, Ian Christie; text and image, allegory and symbol in Gustave Moreau's "Jupiter et Semele", Peter Cooke; between medicine and hermeticism - "the" unconscious in the "fin de siecle". Part 2: primitivism, celticism and morbidity in the Atlantic "fin de siecle", Scott Ashley; Belgian symbolism and the question of Belgian literary identity, Patrick Laude; temporary aesthetes - decadence and symbolism in Germany and Austria, Robert Vilain; the war of the wor(l)ds - symbolist decadent literature and discourses of power in finisecular Spain, Richard A. Cardwell; French symbolism and Italian poetry, 1880-1920, Shirley W. Winall; from Mallarme to Pound - the "Franco-Anglo-American" axis, Patrick McGuinness.