The Decadent Movement in Britain rejected Victorian moral values, embracing art for art's sake and intense sensations.
Decadence resurged in the 1960s as a counter-cultural force, influencing pop culture and challenging societal norms.
Deep dives
Influences Behind the Decadent Movement
Decadence in Britain was influenced by Charles Baudelaire's sensibility, which prized individuality and opposed societal norms. Baudelaire's collection of poems, Flowers of Evil, explored new urban experiences and represented a new form of expression seen as perverse and unhealthy.
The Impact of Walter Pater's Ideas
Walter Pater's philosophy, as expressed in Studies in the History of the Renaissance, emphasized a life of pleasure-seeking and aestheticism. Pater's ideas, often misunderstood, focused on savoring fleeting moments and enjoying sensual pleasures, challenging traditional moral values.
Female Involvement in Decadence
Though predominantly male, the Decadent Movement in Britain involved significant contributions from female writers and novelists. Their works questioned societal norms and explored themes of transgression without consequences, challenging traditional gender roles and the place of women in society.
The Legacy and Evolution of Decadence
Decadence, while facing backlash and declining influence post-1890s, resurged in the 1960s as a counter-cultural force embraced by pop culture. Artists like David Bowie and Morrissey continued the decadent legacy, blending transgression, rebellion, and individualism in their art, influencing later generations and challenging societal norms.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the British phase of a movement that spread across Europe in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Influenced by Charles Baudelaire and by Walter Pater, these Decadents rejected the mainstream Victorian view that art needed a moral purpose, and valued instead the intense sensations art provoked, celebrating art for art’s sake. Oscar Wilde was at its heart, Aubrey Beardsley adorned it with his illustrations and they, with others, provoked moral panic with their supposed degeneracy. After burning brightly, the movement soon lost its energy in Britain yet it has proved influential.
The illustration above, by Beardsley, is from the cover of the first edition of The Yellow Book in April 1894.
With
Neil Sammells
Professor of English and Irish Literature and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Bath Spa University
Kate Hext
Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Exeter
And
Alex Murray
Senior Lecturer in English at Queen’s University, Belfast
Producer: Simon Tillotson
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