Decadence

For other uses, see Decadence (disambiguation).

An orgy in Imperial Rome, by Henryk Siemiradzki
Romans during the Decadence, by Thomas Couture

The word decadence refers to a late-19th-century movement emphasizing the need for sensationalism, egocentricity; bizarre, artificial, perverse, and exotic sensations and experiences. By extension, it may refer to a decline in art, literature, science, technology, and work ethics, or (very loosely) to self-indulgent behavior.

Usage of the term sometimes implies moral censure, or an acceptance of the idea, met with throughout the world since ancient times, that such declines are objectively observable and that they inevitably precede the destruction of the society in question; for this reason, modern historians use it with caution. The word originated in Medieval Latin (dēcadentia), appeared in 16th-century French, and entered English soon afterwards. It bore the neutral meaning of decay, decrease, or decline until the late 19th century, when the influence of new theories of social degeneration contributed to its modern meaning.

The idea that a society or institution is declining is called declinism. This may be caused by the predisposition, caused by cognitive biases such as rosy retrospection, to view the past more favourably and future more negatively.[1] Declinism has been described as "a trick of the mind" and as "an emotional strategy, something comforting to snuggle up to when the present day seems intolerably bleak." Other cognitive factors contributing to the popularity of declinism may include the reminiscence bump as well as both the positivity effect and negativity bias.

In literature, the Decadent movement began in France's fin de siècle intermingling with Symbolism and the Aesthetic movement while spreading throughout Europe and The United States.[2] The Decadent title was originally used as a criticism but it was soon triumphantly adopted by some of the writers themselves.[3] The Decadents praised artifice over nature and sophistication over simplicity, defying contemporary discourses of decline by embracing subjects and styles that their critics considered morbid and over-refined.[4] Some of these writers were influenced by the tradition of the Gothic novel and by the poetry and fiction of Edgar Allan Poe.[5]

  1. ^ The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang edited by Grant Barrett, p. 90.
  2. ^ Smith, James M. (1953). "Concepts of Decadence in Nineteenth-Century French Literature". Studies in Philology. 50 (4): 640–651. ISSN 0039-3738. JSTOR 4173078.
  3. ^ Kaminsky, Alice R. (1976). "The Literary Concept of Decadence". Nineteenth-Century French Studies. 4 (3): 371–384. ISSN 0146-7891. JSTOR 23536184.
  4. ^ Drake, Richard (1982). "Decadence, Decadentism and Decadent Romanticism in Italy: Toward a Theory of Decadence". Journal of Contemporary History. 17 (1): 69–92. doi:10.1177/002200948201700104. ISSN 0022-0094. JSTOR 260445.
  5. ^ Hoang, To Mai (2 January 2021). "Indirect Influence in Literature: The Case of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Han Mac Tu". Comparative Literature: East & West. 5 (1): 29–45. doi:10.1080/25723618.2021.1886440. ISSN 2572-3618.