ENGL 72.02 Decadence, Degeneration and the Fin de Siecle

The end of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of genuinely mass readerships, but it also saw the development of literary forms that pitted themselves against the commercialization and homogenization of literary culture. In this course we will look at so-called decadent writers and artists who imagined heightened forms of aesthetic experience in order to displace the political and sexual norms of their societies. We will also examine the controversies their work evoked and the theories of degeneration, deviance and abnormality that were frequently deployed to explain their excesses. Texts will include Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, J.K. Huysmans’s Against Nature, Marie Corelli’s Wormwood, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Cross Listed Courses

COLT 49.05

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Senior Seminar: Course Group II