Decadent Subjects: The Idea Of Decadence In Art... Page

Friedrich Nietzsche , Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, and Stéphane Mallarmé.

Decadent art famously values artifice over nature and sophistication over simplicity. It rejects the idea that art must be "useful" or spiritually elevating. Decadent Subjects: The Idea of Decadence in Art...

The text connects Freudian theories—such as the death drive , hysteria, and sexual identity—to the artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. Friedrich Nietzsche , Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, and

Artists and their audiences often felt estranged from society, mocking traditional moral rules and embracing sensualism and morbidity to scandalize the "bourgeois" middle class. Decadent Subjects: The Idea of Decadence in Art...