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Gustave Moreau, Jupiter and Semele, c. 1894-1895, oil on canvas, Mus茅e National Gustave-Moreau, Paris.聽
From a neutral term for 'decline',聽decadence has transformed over the centuries into a laden term invoked to signify聽decay, as well as a warning against the dangers of excess and the pursuit of pleasure. Perceived as a disruptive force, dangerous to social order and bourgeois normativity, the threat of decadence is invoked in modern political rhetoric to stoke anxieties over shifts in traditional values and social mores, as well as the looming threat of an irretrievable loss of geopolitical power. Yet in spite of the term's connotations, an identifiable decadent ethos聽has been embraced by writers, artists, and 'othered'聽individuals as modes of expression, as well as rebellion against and liberation from social strictures. Unlike the Romantic sublime, wherein the material self is abandoned in an upward sweep of simultaneous ecstasy and terror, the decadent sublime embraces the downward plunge into materiality. It is this inverse sublime that theorists such as Georges Bataille discuss as an exp茅rience limite, or 'limit-experience', a driving, luxurious expenditure of energy that pushes against sensory boundaries. Translating into varying types of physically-infused aesthetic expressions, this decadent limit-experience is a聽subversive mode that deconstructs and challenges both audience sensibilities and popular standards of taste. Volume XI聽of Moveable Type聽explores this intersection of excess, subversion and deconstruction through various iterations of decadence across different聽texts聽and time periods.
Editor's Foreword
Sarah-Jean Zubair:
Articles
Rebekkah Dilts:聽
Ray Huling:聽
James Jackson:聽
Dr. Stephen聽Newton:聽
Dr. Larry Shillock:聽
Ali Zamanpour:聽
Reviews
Katie Arthur:聽
Kimberley Challis:聽
Dr. Kay J. Walter:聽
Christopher Webb:聽