Studies in Symbolist and Modern Literature

As a literary movement, “Decadence” came into existence by means of an act of cultural re-signification; taking up an epithet meant as an insult, Anatole Baju transformed “decadence” into a rallying cry.  This course will mime this inaugural gesture by grouping together a number of fin-de-siècle (for the most part) writers and intellectuals (including Freud and the sexologists) whose works are, we will suggest, the locus of a series of cultural re-significations. In particular, we will look at the ways in which norms constraining and defining genders, sexualities, and literary, political, and aesthetic practices are tested and transformed in works by Baudelaire, Huysmans, Rodenbach,Catulle Mendès, Octave Mirbeau, Wilde, Swinburne, John Addington Symonds, Pater, Havelock Ellis, D’Annunzio, Freud and Breuer, Sacher-Masoch, Krafft-Ebbing, and Rachilde. Requirements: one oral presentation; one 20-25 page seminar paper.

Texts

Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life (Le peintre de la vie moderne)

Huysmans, Against Nature (À rebours)

Rodenbach, Bruges-la-morte

Mendès, Méphistophéla

Mirbeau, The Torture Garden (Le jardin des supplices)

Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray; Salomé

Swinburne, selections

Symonds, selections

Pater, The Renaissance

Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Inversion

Krafft-Ebbing, Psychopathia sexualis

D’Annunzio, The Victim (L’Innocente), The Flame (Il fuoco)

Freud and Breuer, Studies in Hysteria

Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs (Venus im Pelz)

Rachilde, Monsieur Venus, The Juggler (La jongleuse)