Editing Decadence (section)

==History==
===Ancient Rome===
{{main|Roman decadence}}
Decadence is a popular criticism of the culture of the [[later Roman Empire]]'s elites, seen also in much of its earlier [[historiography]] and 19th and early 20th century art depicting Roman life. This criticism describes the later [[Roman Empire]] as reveling in luxury, in its extreme characterized by corrupting "extravagance, weakness, and sexual deviance", as well as "orgies and sensual excesses".<ref>{{Citation |last=Hurst |first=Isobel |title=Nineteenth-Century Literary and Artistic Responses to Roman Decadence |date=22 August 2019 |work=Decadence and Literature |pages=47–65 |editor-last=Desmarais |editor-first=Jane H. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/decadence-and-literature/86D3F82D0D84F5407FA07B37CC7641F8 |access-date=2021-07-24 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-42624-4 |editor2-last=Weir |editor2-first=David}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Hoffleit |first=Gerald |title=Progress and Decadence—Poststructuralism as Progressivism |date=2014 |work=Decadence in Literature and Intellectual Debate since 1945 |pages=67–81 |editor-last=Landgraf |editor-first=Diemo |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137431028_4 |access-date=2021-07-24 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|doi=10.1057/9781137431028_4 |isbn=978-1-137-43102-8|url-access=subscription }}.</ref><ref name="Farrington1994">{{cite book|author=Geoffrey Farrington|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3BoAAAAMAAJ|title=The Dedalus Book of Roman Decadence: Emperors of Debauchery|publisher=Dedalus|year=1994|isbn=978-1-873982-16-7}}</ref><ref name="House1996">{{cite book|author=Patrick M. House|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cq8IAQAAMAAJ|title=The Psychology of Decadence: The Portrayal of Ancient Romans in Selected Works of Russian Literature of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries|publisher=University of Wisconsin—Madison|year=1996}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Toner |first=Jerry |title=Decadence in Ancient Rome |date=2019 |work=Decadence and Literature |pages=15–29 |editor-last=Weir |editor-first=David |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/decadence-and-literature/decadence-in-ancient-rome/2E26F02C30B6896C842230FDA81F8FA1 |access-date=2021-07-24 |series=Cambridge Critical Concepts |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-42624-4 |editor2-last=Desmarais |editor2-first=Jane}}.</ref>{{excessive citations inline|date=January 2024}}
[[File:Heliogabalus High Priest of the Sun.jpg|thumb|''Heliogabalus, High Priest of the Sun'' by [[Simeon Solomon]] (1866)]]

==== Victorian-era artwork on Roman decadence ====
According to Professor [[Joseph Bristow (literary scholar)|Joseph Bristow]] of [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]], decadence in Rome and the Victorian-era movement are connected through the idea of "decadent historicism."<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Bristow |first=Joseph |date=19 June 2020 |title=Decadent Historicism |url=http://journals.gold.ac.uk/index.php/volupte/article/view/1401/1515 |journal=Volupté|pages=1–27 Pages, 4MB |doi=10.25602/GOLD.V.V3I1.1401.G1515}}</ref> In particular, decadent historicism refers to the "interest among…1880s and 1890s writers in the enduring authority of perverse personas from the past" including the later Roman era.<ref name=":4" /> As such, Bristow's argument references how [[Elagabalus|Heliogabalus]], the title subject of [[Simeon Solomon]]'s painting ''Heliogabalus, High Priest of the Sun'' (1866), was "a decadent icon" for the Victorian movement.<ref name=":4" /> Bristow also notes that "[t]he image [of the painting] summons many qualities linked with [[Fin de siècle|fin-de-siècle]] decadence [alongside his]…queerness[,]" thus "inspir[ing] late-Victorian writers [as]…they…imagine anew sexual modernity."<ref name=":4" />
[[File:The Roses of Heliogabalus.jpg|thumb|''The Roses of Heliogabalus'' by [[Lawrence Alma-Tadema|Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema]] (1888)]]
Heliogabalus is also the subject of ''[[The Roses of Heliogabalus]]'' (1888) by [[Lawrence Alma-Tadema|Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema]], which, according to Professor [[Rosemary Barrow]], represents "the artist['s]…most glorious revel in Roman Decadence."<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Barrow |first=Rosemary |date=1997 |title=The Scent of Roses: Alma-Tadema and the Other Side of Rome |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43636546 |journal=Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies |volume=42 |pages=183–202 |doi=10.1111/j.2041-5370.1998.tb00729.x |jstor=43636546 |issn=0076-0730|url-access=subscription }}</ref> To Barrow, "[t]he authenticity of the [scene]…perhaps had little importance for the artist[, meaning that] its appeal is the entertaining and extravagant vision it gives of later imperial Rome."<ref name=":5" /> Barrow also makes a point to mention "that Alma-Tadema’s Roman-subject paintings [tend to]…make use of historical, literary and archaeological sources" within themselves.<ref name=":5" /> Thus, the presence of roses within the painting as opposed to the original "'violets and other flowers'" of the source material emphasizes how "the Roman world…h[eld] extra connotations of revelry and luxuriant excess" about them.<ref name=":5" />

===Decadent movement===
{{Main|Decadent movement}}
[[File:Félicien Rops - Pornokratès - 1878.jpg|thumb|''[[Pornocrates]]'' by [[Félicien Rops]] (1878)]]
Decadence was the name given to a number of late nineteenth-century writers who valued artifice over the earlier Romantics' naïve view of nature. Some of them triumphantly adopted the name, referring to themselves as Decadents. For the most part, they were influenced by the tradition of the [[Gothic novel]] and by the poetry and fiction of [[Edgar Allan Poe]], and were associated with [[symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]] and/or [[Aestheticism]].

This concept of decadence dates from the eighteenth century, especially from [[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]] and [[John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester|Wilmot]]. It was taken up by critics as a term of abuse after [[Désiré Nisard]] used it against [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Romanticism]] in general. A later generation of Romantics, such as [[Théophile Gautier]] and [[Charles Baudelaire]] took the word as a badge of pride, as a sign of their rejection of what they saw as banal "progress." In the 1880s, a group of [[French literature|French writers]] referred to themselves as Decadents. The classic novel from this group is [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]]' ''[[À rebours|Against Nature]]'', often seen as the first great decadent work, though others attribute this honor to Baudelaire's works.

In Britain and Ireland the leading figure associated with the Decadent movement was Irish writer, [[Oscar Wilde]]. Other significant figures include [[Arthur Symons]], [[Aubrey Beardsley]] and [[Ernest Dowson]].

The Symbolist movement has frequently been confused with the Decadent movement. Several young writers were derisively referred to in the press as "decadent" in the mid-1880s. [[Jean Moréas]]' manifesto was largely a response to this [[polemic]]. A few of these writers embraced the term while most avoided it. Although the aesthetics of Symbolism and Decadence can be seen as overlapping in some areas, the two remain distinct.

===1920s Berlin===
{{main|1920s Berlin}}
{{see also|Roaring twenties|Weimar culture}}

This "''fertile culture''" of [[Berlin]] extended onwards until [[Adolf Hitler]] rose to power in early 1933 and stamped out any and all resistance to the [[Nazi Party]]. Likewise, the German far-right decried Berlin as a haven of degeneracy. A new culture had developed in and around Berlin throughout the previous decade, including architecture and design ([[Bauhaus]], 1919–33), a variety of literature ([[Alfred Döblin|Döblin]], ''[[Berlin Alexanderplatz]]'', 1929), film ([[Fritz Lang|Lang]], ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'', 1927, [[Marlene Dietrich|Dietrich]], ''[[The Blue Angel|Der blaue Engel]]'', 1930), painting ([[George Grosz|Grosz]]), and music ([[Bertolt Brecht|Brecht]] and [[Kurt Weill|Weill]], ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'', 1928), criticism ([[Walter Benjamin|Benjamin]]), philosophy/psychology ([[Carl Jung|Jung]]), and fashion.{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} This culture was considered decadent and disruptive by [[Right-wing politics|rightists]].<ref>Kirkus UK review of Laqueur, Walter ''Weimar: A Cultural History, 1918–1933.''</ref>

[[Cinema of Germany|Film]] was making huge technical and artistic strides during this period of time in Berlin, and gave rise to the influential movement called [[German expressionist cinema|German Expressionism]]. "[[Talkies]]", the sound films, were also becoming more popular with the general public across Europe, and Berlin was producing very many of them.

Berlin in the 1920s also proved to be a haven for English-language writers such as [[W. H. Auden]], [[Stephen Spender]] and [[Christopher Isherwood]], who wrote a series of 'Berlin novels', inspiring the play ''[[I Am a Camera]]'', which was later adapted into a musical, ''[[Cabaret (musical)|Cabaret]]'', and an [[Academy Award]] winning [[Cabaret (1972 film)|film of the same name]]. Spender's semi-autobiographical novel ''[[The Temple (Stephen Spender)|The Temple]]'' evokes the attitude and atmosphere of the place at the time.

=== Decadent nihilistic art ===
[[File:Malevich.black-square.jpg|thumb|"[[Black Square]]" by [[Kazimir Malevich]]]]The philosophy of decadence comes from the work of German philosopher [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] (1788–1860),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lockerd |first=Martin |date=2023 |title=George Moore and Decadent Antinatalism |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/904914 |journal=Christianity & Literature |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=154–173 |doi=10.1353/chy.2023.a904914 |issn=2056-5666|url-access=subscription }}</ref> however, [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] (1844–1900), a specific philosopher of decadence, conceptualized modern decadence on a more influential scale. Holding decadence to be in any condition, ultimately limiting what something or someone can be, Nietzsche used his exploration in nihilism to critique traditional values and morals that threatened the decline in art, literature, and science. [[Nihilism]], generally, is the rejection of moral principles, ultimately believing that life is meaningless. Nihilism, for Nietzsche, was the ultimate fate of Western civilization as old values lost their influence and purpose, in turn, disappeared among society. Predicting a rise in decadence and aesthetic nihilism, creators would renounce the pursuit of beauty and instead welcome the incomprehensible chaos. In art, there have been movements connected to nihilism, such as cubism and surrealism, that pushes for abandoned viewpoints to ultimately tap into the potential of one's conscious mind. [[File:Edgar Degas - In a Café - Google Art Project 2.jpg|thumb|"[[L'Absinthe]]" by Edgar Degas]]Because of this, paintings like 1875-76's [[L'Absinthe|"''L’Absinthe''"]] by [[Edgar Degas]] and 1915's "[[Black Square]]" by [[Kazimir Malevich]] were created. ''L’Absinthe,'' which first showed in 1876, was mocked and called disgusting when panned by critics. Some say the painting is a blow to morality, as a glass filled with Absinthe, an alcoholic drink, rests in front of a woman at a table. Taken to be in bad faith and quite uncouth, Degas's art took decadence as a way to portray ambiguity in random subjects that seem to be drifting between depression and euphoria. Using nihilism in a synonymously way, Degas denoted his paintings to a general mood of despair, mainly at existence as a whole. Comparing this piece to Kazimir Malevich's "Black Square," abstract nihilistic art in the Western tradition was only beginning to take shape as the 20th century came about. Malevich's perception of this piece embraced a philosophy connected to [[Suprematism]] – a new realism in painting that evokes non-objectivity to experience "white emptiness of a liberated nothing," as said by Malevich himself. In nihilism, life has, in a sense, no truth, therefore no action is objectively preferable to another. Malevich's decadent painting shows the complete abandonment of depicting reality, and instead creates his own world of new form. When the painting was first exhibited, the public was in chaos, as society was in its first World War and Malevich reflected a new social revolution as a symbol of a new tomorrow, disregarding the past to move forward. Because of this painting and Degas's, decadence can be portrayed as a physiological foundation for nihilism, bringing out a term called "Decadent Nihilism:" existing beyond the world, and that of vain virtues. According to Nietzsche, Western metaphysical and nihilistic thought is decadent because of its confirmation from 'others' (apart from oneself) based on ideas of a nihilistic God. The extreme position an artist takes is what makes their pieces decadent.