Decadent culture in the United States : art and literature against the American grain, 1890-1926 / David Weir.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weir, David, 1947 April 20-

Series:

SUNY series, studies in the long nineteenth century

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Decadence (Literary movement).

History.

Art, American.

Decadence in art.

Degeneration.

Social aspects.

United States--Intellectual life--1865-1918.

United States.

Intellectual life.

United States--Intellectual life--20th century.

Boston (Mass.)--Intellectual life.

Boston (Mass.).

Chicago (Ill.)--Intellectual life.

Chicago (Ill.).

San Francisco (Calif.)--Intellectual life.

San Francisco (Calif.).

Degeneration--Social aspects--United States--History.

Decadence in art--History.

Art, American--History.

Decadence (Literary movement)--United States--History.

American literature--History and criticism.

American literature.

Physical Description:

xxii, 233 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2008]

Summary:

Decadent Culture in the United States traces the development of the decadent movement in America from its beginnings in the 1890s to its brief revival in the 1920s. During the fin de siecle, many Americans felt the nation had entered a period of decline since the frontier had ended and the country's "manifest destiny" seemed to be fulfilled. Decadence-the cultural response to national decline and individual degeneracy so familiar in nineteenth-century Europe-was thus taken up by groups of artists and writers in major American cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Noting that the capitalist, commercial context of America provided possibilities for the entrance of decadence into popular culture to a degree that simply did not occur in Europe, David Weir argues that American-style decadence was driven by a dual impulse: away from popular culture for ideological reasons, yet toward popular culture for economic reasons. By going against the grain of dominant social and cultural trends, American writers produced a native variant of Continental Decadence that eventually dissipated "upward" into the rising leisure class and "downward" into popular, commercial culture.

Contents:

Introduction : the problem of American decadence

New York : decadent connections

Boston : decadent communities

Chicago : the business of decadence

San Francisco : the seacoast of decadence

The decadent revival.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-222) and index.

ISBN:

9780791472774

0791472779

OCLC:

80358824