Raising the question of what decadence is, a study should be made of the history of the appearance of the definition itself. But this concept was born in France, and the words "decline" and "decomposition" serve as its translation. Digging deeper, you can find the root of the word in the Latin designation of the fall. So what is decadence? Who falls where and what decomposes? And in general, in relation to whom or what should this concept be used?
It turns out that decadence is a direction in art. Sometimes this word refers to the behavior of a person whose views correspond to decadence. This direction arose between the 19th and 20th centuries, when the historical upheaval of public life pushed creative people to rethink their creative positions. During this period of crisis social phenomena among the people, decadent sentiments, rejection of life in general, tendencies of individualism and feelings of hopelessness and hopelessness began to roam. Art, as it were, found a way out in the rejection of the political and civil life of society, deciding that this position is the only true one that gives real freedom to creativity. Therefore, to the question of what decadence is, you can also give such an answer: a departure from reality, a refusal to reflect politics and citizenship in your work.
So what do decadents display then? Favorite topics in this artistic direction are death and nonexistence, longing for ideals and spirituality, the dream of a beautiful future beyond reality. This direction has developed in various fields of art. It did not bypass literature. What is decadence in the literature?
Many art historians, considering this direction, use such terms as “neo-romanticism”, “modern” and “symbolism”. But it is worth noting that all of them cannot fully illuminate decadence, often being only part of the general movement. It is believed that decadence in literature dates back to the 18th century, the founder of which is called Montesquieu, and the closest in time successor is the writer and critic from France Desiree Nizard.
However, many critics did not like literature of this kind, and they practically made the word “decadence” offensive, the grass of Victor Hugo and romanticism in general. However, time has shown that the works of both Hugo and the follower of the direction we are considering, Edgar Allan Poe, are still enthusiastically read by modern people. We have not forgotten both Charles Baudelaire and Theophile Gautier, who made the word insulting a word used as an honorary sign.
They considered decadence to be a denial of "banal progress." Among the Russian decadents of the “older generation” (1880–1890) there are such famous poets and writers as A. Dobrolubov, F. Sologub, K. Balmont, I. Konevskaya, Zinaida Gippius, D. Merezhkovsky and the “early” Bryusov. Art Nouveau in Russia was also represented by the pre-symbolist M. Minsky, prose writer L.N. Andreev, I.F. Annensky.
Subsequently, the ideas of decadence laid the foundation for many other modernist trends in literature. They are reflected in A. Blok and A. Akhmatova, in V. Bryusov and V. Kandinsky, in I. Stravinsky and many others, now called classics of Russian literature.
Nowadays, this trend begins its new round of prosperity. In February of the last year of the last millennium, Marusya Klimova (writer) and Timur Novikov (artist) held a decadence festival called “Dark Nights”. And that was just the beginning. In 1005, a festival was again held at the Brestskaya Club in Moscow under the direction of the leader of the Boston Tea Party, journalist Vladimir Preobrazhensky. Today, literary decadence has separated from secular, from Gothic and retro sites, virtually outlining its audience on the Internet. “Courtly decadence” in the modern world will soon reach the popularity of decadence during the period of its greatest prosperity - in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.