∞ June 19, 2013 at 11:29pm
Literature Meme: 1/2 Movements, The Decadent Movement (19th-century)
The Decadent movement in literature was a short-lived but influential style during the latter half of the 19th century. It is most associated with French literature, and Charles Baudelaire was perhaps the foremost figure of the Decadent movement. Decadent writers used elaborate, stylized language to discuss taboo and often unsavory topics, such as death, depression, and deviant sexualities.
The word Decadent arose in the literary world as a disparaging assessment from critics. Decadent denotes effeteness and a decline of morals, such as that which supposedly caused the dissolution of the Roman Empire. French literary critics in the 19th century used the term to dismiss writers who they felt were unimportant and merely wallowing in shocking subject matter, but some writers embraced the term and began identifying their own work as Decadent, taking pride in their opposition to everyday morality and mores.
Decadent literature encompasses poetry, novels, and short fiction. It was in part born out of the Romantic movement, which sought to effect emotions in the reader, but also a revolt against Romanticism’s glorification of nature. The Decadents favored art and artifice over the natural world, and in this respect were closely aligned to the Symbolist and Aesthetic movements of the same period. The Gothic offshoot of Romantic fiction, especially the work of Edgar Allen Poe, was a major inspiration to the Decadents. In fact, Baudelaire translated Poe’s works into French.
(via gothiccharmschool)
Kārlis Padegs, Red Laughter, 1931
(via angrywhistler)
Why do men think women are angry just on their period?
I’m angry all the time. Get the fuck away from me
(via umadfem)
(via psychotic-art)
