Editing Decadence (section)

=== Controversy ===
'''Vladimir Nabokov's ''Lolita''''' '''(1955)'''

Aesthetics falling under the category of decadence often include controversy. An example of a controversial style founded through decadent literary influence is the novel, ''[[Lolita]]'', by [[Vladimir Nabokov]], a Russian-American citizen. ''Lolita'', while expressing the prose through a pedophile's narration, directly expresses Nabokov's discourse with decadent literature. According to Will Norman from the [[University of Kent]], the novel makes many references to prominent historical figures related to decadence, such as [[Edgar Allan Poe]] and [[Charles Baudelaire]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Norman |first=Will |date=2009 |title=Lolita's 'Time Leaks' and transatlantic decadence. |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1386/ejac.28.2.185_1 |journal=European Journal of American Culture |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=185–204 |doi=10.1386/ejac.28.2.185_1 |url-access= |via=EBSCOhost}}</ref> Norman states, "... Lolita ''emerges as the risky reinstatement of a transatlantic decadent tradition, in which the failure of temporal and ethical containment disrupts a dominant narrative of modernism's history in American letters"''.<ref name=":0" /> ''Lolita'' purposefully exemplifies a moral decline, while simultaneously disregarding the ethics of Nabokov’s time. The emphasis on its temporal standing in history captures an intermediate state of decadent literature itself. Norman describes that "... Nabokov reproduces the tension between American regionalism and modernist [[cosmopolitanism]] in his own 'Edgar H. Humbert', as the European aesthete embarks on his road-trip with Dolores...".<ref name=":0" /> The text exemplifies Nabokov's desire to replicate the many social disparities of American culture while using his character, H. Humbert, to demonstrate a lack of moral judgement. Norman continues, "Nabokov's text positions ''itself'' as the dynamic historical agent, importing Poe wholesale (from caricature through to complex literary intellectual) into the present and facilitating his critique in the hands of the reader".<ref name=":0" /> Leaving the judgement in the hands of the reader, Nabokov uses ''Lolita'' to work through the complexities that decadence presents for ethical or moral obligations to society. Norman concludes, "''Lolita'' joins American works such as [[William Faulkner]]'s ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'' (1929) and [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s ''[[Tender Is the Night]]'' (1934) which assimilate themes of incest and sexual pathology into their decadent aesthetics, with the effect of bringing European temporalities into conflict with American social modernity".<ref name=":0" /> Using a controversial method, Nabokov employs decadent aesthetics to document a moment of historical transition.

==== Women in decadence ====
Not only do the stylistic choices of literature in decadence cause ethical debate, but the presence of women in literature also causes controversy in politics. Viola Parente-Čapková, a Lecturer from the university in Prague, Czech Republic, argues that women writers following decadent literary structure have been overlooked due to their simultaneous influence of the [[Feminist movements and ideologies|feminist movement]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Parente-Capkova |first=Viola |date=1998 |title=Decadent New Woman? |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08038749850167897 |journal=NORA: Nordic Journal of Women's Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=6–20 |doi=10.1080/08038749850167897 |url-access=registration |via=EBSCOhost}}</ref> The belief that women could not separate morality from their writing due to their purposeful prose to argue for women's rights suggests a theme of misogyny, in which men excluded women from being considered Decadent writers because of the possibility of a desire for social change.

==== Social change ====
Decadence offers a world-view, in that "it is an ideological phenomenon originating in the experience of a particular group, and it became the aesthetics of the upper-middle class".<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Morse |first=Margaret |date=1977 |title=Decadence and Social Change: Arthur Schnitzler's Works as an Ongoing Process of Deconstruction |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=18777937&site=ehost-live |journal=Modern Austrian Literature |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=37–52 |url-access=registration |via=EBSCOhost}}</ref> Changes in European industrialization and urbanization led to the development of the proletariat, nuclear family, and entrepreneurial class . The values of Decadence formed as an opposition to "those of an earlier and supposedly more vital bourgeoisie".<ref name=":3" /> Aesthetically, progress turns into decay, activity becomes play instead of goal-oriented work, and art becomes a way of life. To individuals that observe the changes in social structure after rapid industrialization, the idea of progress becomes something to rebel against, because this real-world progress seems to be leaving them behind.