The Decadent Republic of Letters: Taste, Politics, and Cosmopolitan Community from Baudelaire to Beardsley

Matthew Potolsky

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2013

The Decadent Republic of Letters

Taste, Politics, and Cosmopolitan Community from Baudelaire to Beardsley

Matthew Potolsky

In the series Haney Foundation Series

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812207330

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Decadent Republic of Letters revises the longstanding view of decadence as a movement defined by escapism and sociopolitical withdrawal. The book argues that decadent writers and artists from Charles Baudelaire to Aubrey Beardsley addressed a cosmopolitan audience united by taste rather than language, geography, or national identity.

Author / Editor information

Matthew Potolsky is Associate Professor of English at the University of Utah.

Reviews

"A new understanding, full of fresh detail and local insight, and it will take an important and indeed essential place in the growing body of scholarly work in this field. . . . A welcome contribution to the understanding of the cultural politics of late nineteenth-century decadence."—Victorian Studies

"Potolsky offers a fresh and original contribution to the study of decadence and succeeds in showing how the movement is not a dusty relic of the nineteenth century, but a provocative and relevant intervention into contemporary issues. In true decadent manner, Potolsky approaches his subject perversely, arguing that we should look not at what decadence rejects but instead at what its proponents valorize. The result is a perspective that emphasizes engagement over withdrawal and renunciation. Decadence emerges from this analysis an exciting, revitalized ideology, one that suggests new ways of approaching contemporary debates."—Melanie Hawthorne, Texas A&M University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. “Workers of the Final Hour” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. “Partisans Inconnus” Aesthetic Community and the Public Good in Baudelaire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
Chapter 2. The Politics of Appreciation Gautier and Swinburne on Baudelaire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
Chapter 3. Golden Books Pater, Huysmans, and De cadent Canonization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Chapter 4. A Mirror for Teachers De cadent Pedagogy and Public Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Chapter 5. A Republic of (Nothing but) Letters Some Versions of De cadent Community Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
Postscript. Public Works Stéphane Mallarmé’s “Le Tombeau de Charles Baudelaire” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 240
Keywords: Literature; Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: October 15, 2012
ISBN: 9780812207330