Editing Decadence (section)

{{Short description|Perceived decay of standards in a society}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
[[File:Henryk Siemiradzki 004.jpeg|thumb|''An orgy in Imperial Rome'', by [[Henryk Siemiradzki]]]]
[[File:THOMAS COUTURE - Los Romanos de la Decadencia (Museo de Orsay, 1847. Óleo sobre lienzo, 472 x 772 cm).jpg|thumb|''[[Romans during the Decadence]]'', by [[Thomas Couture]]]]

'''Decadence''' was a late-19th-century movement emphasizing the need for [[sensationalism]], [[egocentricity]], and bizarre, artificial, perverse, and [[Exoticism|exotic]] sensations and experiences. By extension, it may refer to a decline in art, literature, science, technology, and [[workforce productivity|work ethics]], or (very loosely) to [[libertinism|self-indulgent]] behavior.

Usage of the term sometimes implies moral [[censure]], or an acceptance of the idea, met with throughout the world since [[ancient times]], that such declines are objectively observable and that they inevitably precede the destruction of the society in question; for this reason, modern historians use it with caution. The word originated in [[Medieval Latin]] ''(dēcadentia)'', appeared in 16th-century French, and entered English soon afterwards. It bore the neutral meaning of decay, decrease, or decline until the late 19th century, when the influence of new theories of [[social degeneration]] contributed to its modern meaning.

The idea that a society or institution is declining is called [[declinism]]. This may be caused by the predisposition, caused by [[cognitive bias]]es such as [[rosy retrospection]], to view the past more favourably and future more negatively.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rZk6DwAAQBAJ&dq=Oxford%20declinist&pg=PA90 ''The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang''] edited by Grant Barrett, p. 90.</ref> Declinism has been described as "a trick of the mind" and as "an emotional strategy, something comforting to snuggle up to when the present day seems intolerably bleak." Other cognitive factors contributing to the popularity of declinism may include the [[reminiscence bump]] as well as both the [[positivity effect]] and [[negativity bias]].

In literature, the [[Decadent movement]] began in France's ''[[fin de siècle]]'' intermingling with [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]] and the [[Aesthetic movement]] while spreading throughout Europe and the [[United States]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=James M. |date=1953 |title=Concepts of Decadence in Nineteenth-Century French Literature |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4173078 |journal=Studies in Philology |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=640–651 |jstor=4173078 |issn=0039-3738}}</ref> The Decadent title was originally used as a criticism but it was soon triumphantly adopted by some of the writers themselves.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kaminsky |first=Alice R. |date=1976 |title=The Literary Concept of Decadence |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23536184 |journal=Nineteenth-Century French Studies |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=371–384 |jstor=23536184 |issn=0146-7891}}</ref> The Decadents praised artifice over nature and sophistication over simplicity, defying contemporary discourses of decline by embracing subjects and styles that their critics considered morbid and over-refined.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Drake |first=Richard |date=1982 |title=Decadence, Decadentism and Decadent Romanticism in Italy: Toward a Theory of Decadence |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/260445 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=69–92 |doi=10.1177/002200948201700104 |jstor=260445 |issn=0022-0094|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Some of these writers were influenced by the tradition of the [[Gothic novel]] and by the poetry and fiction of [[Edgar Allan Poe]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoang |first=To Mai |date=2 January 2021 |title=Indirect Influence in Literature: The Case of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Han Mac Tu |journal=Comparative Literature: East & West|volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=29–45 |doi=10.1080/25723618.2021.1886440 |issn=2572-3618|doi-access=free }}</ref>