FRN3870

Decadence

Proposed to be offered next in 1999

B Nelson

8 points
* 2 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton

Objectives Students completing this subject will have acquired a first-hand acquaintance with some of the most significant examples of Decadent writing in French, and an understanding of `decadence' as both a stylistic and period concept in literary and cultural history.

Synopsis An examination of the ramifications of `decadence' as a cultural category. Topics will include theories of cultural pessimism and psychopathological degeneracy, the fascination with femmes fatales and transgressive sexualities, and the relations between Decadence and the emergence of modernism.

Assessment Short essay (1500 words): 20%
* Long essay (3000 words): 50%
* Class paper (1500 words): 30%

Prescribed texts

Course reader (to be purchased from the department)
Huysmans J-K A rebours
Mirbeau O Le journal d'une femme de chambre
Rachilde La Marquise de Sade

Recommended texts

Birkett J The sins of the fathers: Decadence in France
Dijkstra B Idols of perversity: Fantasies of feminine evil in fin-de-siècle culture 1870-1912
Teich M and Porter R (eds) Fin de siècle and its legacy