Spectrum of Decadence: Literature of the 1890's - Hardcover

The 1890s was the era of decadent culture; the era of Oscar Wilde and aestheticism. Murray Pittock traces the genesis of the decade's flamboyant literary culture through the literary texts of the period. Through works by writers such as Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, W.B. Yeats and Walter Pater, Pittock analyzes the nature of the "decadent era" and the artistic theories of Symbolism and Aestheticism. He provides an assessment of the lasting impact that the anti-scientific thought of the period has had on our own understanding of our cultural past. Indeed, the confrontations between art and science, sex and morality, desire and virtue, the author argues, are as much a part of the 20th century's fin-de-siecle as they were of the 19th century's.