Decadence in Literature and Intellectual Debate since 1945

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Historical and Philosophical Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. On the Notion of Decadence in the FRG and France after 1945—with Examples by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Botho Strauß, and Richard Millet

      • Diemo Landgraf

      Pages 3-24

   3. “In the very quick of the nightmare”: Decadence and Mystics of Wilderness in Henry Miller’s Cultural Criticism of Modernity

      • Mario Bosincu

      Pages 25-48

   4. The Function of Decadence and Ascendance in Analytic Philosophy

      • Jens Lemanski, Konstantin Alogas

      Pages 49-65

   5. Progress and Decadence—Poststructuralism as Progressivism

      • Gerald Hoffleit

      Pages 67-81

3. Decadence and the Politics of Culture and Language

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 83-83

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   2. The Concept of Decadence as Ideological and Law Enforcement Category in the GDR

      • Torben Ibs

      Pages 85-109

   3. Joual en stock: The Controversial Issue of Language Quality and Autochthonous Standardization in Quebec

      • Claus D. Pusch

      Pages 111-129

4. Literary and Film Studies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 131-131

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   2. Michelangelo Antonioni’s Early “Trilogy of Decadence”: L’avventura (1960), La notte (1961), L’eclisse (1962)

      • Jakob Willis

      Pages 133-152

   3. Houellebecq’s Fin de Siècle: Crisis of Society, Crisis of the Novel—Thematic and Poetological Intertextuality between Michel Houellebecq and Joris-Karl Huysmans

      • Betül Dilmac

      Pages 153-169

   4. The Shadow of Decadence: The Latin American Boom and the Taboo of the Spanish Novel of the Democratic Period

      • Pablo Sánchez

      Pages 171-185

   5. Exile and Writing: Alfredo Bryce Echenique and the Decadence of the Myth of Paris

      • Blanca Navarro Pardiñas

      Pages 187-204

   6. Tradition, (Post)Modernity, and Decadence in Vargas Llosa’s Lituma en los Andes and Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto

      • Diemo Landgraf

      Pages 205-224

5. Back Matter

   Pages 225-232

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Bridging the gap between decadence as it is traditionally understood in literary and cultural studies and its relevance to current phenomena, this interdisciplinary collection examines literary texts and movies from Europe and the United States since 1945.

• Cultural Studies
• culture
• Europe
• law
• novel
• society
• structuralism
• Tradition
• Walter Jens

"Decadence, as an aesthetic, philosophical, sociological or political concept, has been and remains one of the most controversial terms in any one culture's vocabulary. This collection offers a thought-provoking view of the development and the uses of the notion of a final sickness of the collective soul that will give much fodder for future studies, and contributes most usefully to the history of ideas, from the nineteenth century to the present day." - Vittorio Frigerio, Professor of French, Dalhousie University, Canada

Mario Bosincu, University of Sassari, Italy Jens Lemanski, FernUniversität Hagen, Germany Konstantin Alogas, University of Mainz, Germany Gerald Hoffleit, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany Torben Ibs, University of Leipzig, Germany Claus D. Pusch, Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany Jakob Willis, Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany Betül Dilmac, Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany Pablo Sánchez, University of Seville, Spain Blanca Navarro Pardiñas, University of Moncton, Canada

Policies and ethics