Original scientific paper

New Insights into the Concept of Decadence

Sibila Petlevski orcid.org/0000-0001-5006-2646 ; Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give new insights into the concept of decadence and, by doing so, to promote the methodological benefits of a trans-disciplinary approach to socio-philosophical notions such as “progress” and “decline”. Analysis of decadent literature leads to valuable insights into the problem of “decadence” in the time of postmodernism, i.e. an epoch abundant in trans-historical re-imaginations of modernism, usually accompanied by methodological preference for interdisciplinarity. In the first part of the paper we reflect upon the role of “dissipative” style in the evolution of literary forms. In the second part we analyze an example of persiflage in decadent style during the time of decadence in Croatia, and in the third we speak about cultural pessimism, cultural optimism, and cultural sustainability, commenting on Bourget, Nordau, Spengler, Bergson, and contemporary theoreticians.

Keywords

decadence; modernity; evolution; progress; reversibility; entropy; sustainability

Hrčak ID:

161830

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/161830

Publication date:

20.6.2016.

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