Decadence and Catholicism
Published on 1. February 1998
Book
Paperback/Softback
448 pages
978-0-674-19446-5 (ISBN)
Description
Romantic writers had found in Christianity a poetic cult of the imagination, an assertion of the spiritual quality of beauty in an age of vulgar materialism. The decadents, a diverse movement of writers, were the climax and exhaustion of this romantic tradition. In their art, they enacted the romance of faith as a protest against the dreariness of modern life. Ellis Hanson teases out two strands--eroticism and aestheticism--that rendered the decadent interest in Catholicism extraordinary. More than any other literary movement, the decadents explored the powerful historical relationship between homoeroticism and Roman Catholicism. Why, throughout history, have so many homosexuals been attracted to Catholic institutions that vociferously condemn homosexuality? This perplexing question is pursued in this elegant and innovative book.
Late-nineteenth-century aesthetes found in the Church a peculiar language that gave them a means of artistic and sexual expression. The brilliant cast of characters that parades through this book includes Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, J.-K. Huysmans, Walter Pater, and Paul Verlaine. Art for these writers was a mystical and erotic experience. In decadent Catholicism we can glimpse the beginnings of a postmodern valorization of perversity and performativity. Catholicism offered both the hysterical symptom and the last hope for paganism amid the dullness of Victorian puritanism and bourgeois materialism.
Late-nineteenth-century aesthetes found in the Church a peculiar language that gave them a means of artistic and sexual expression. The brilliant cast of characters that parades through this book includes Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, J.-K. Huysmans, Walter Pater, and Paul Verlaine. Art for these writers was a mystical and erotic experience. In decadent Catholicism we can glimpse the beginnings of a postmodern valorization of perversity and performativity. Catholicism offered both the hysterical symptom and the last hope for paganism amid the dullness of Victorian puritanism and bourgeois materialism.
Reviews / Votes
Whoever comes to this book would do well to leave facile preconceptions behind...What is most refreshing about Hanson's approach is that he takes the spirituality [of the writers he examines] every bit as seriously as he does their aesthetic. Indeed he sees the two as inextricably bound...At a time when many people would rather be thought of as invalids than sinners, it is stimulating to read a work that takes seriously the notion that the urgings of the flesh can serve as a foundation for spiritual growth...That one makes the acquaintance, along the way, of Firbank's 'absurdly named Pope Tertius II' is only one among many added bonuses in a book as entertaining as it is learned. -- Frank Wilson * Philadelphia Inquirer * Decadence and Catholicism examines the intersections of Catholic, aesthetic and erotic discourses, particularly in the works of J.K. Huysmans, Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. There is a long chapter devoted to each of these three 'decadents,' as they have been familiarly described, a representation with which Hanson has no quarrel. He then considers several lesser-known authors: John Francis Bloxam, John Gray, Andre Raffolovich, Frederick William Rolfe, Montague Summers and Ronald Firbank. Hanson's precise, vivacious and often witty style enhances the quality of his overall scholarship. In his treatment of each writer, he mingles biography and summary with full, varied and deeply textured interpretation. -- Paul C. Doherty * America * Hanson examines 19th-century aesthetes who found in the Roman Catholic Church an outlet for artistic and sexual expression. Many writers, such as Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, and Walter Pater, have been attracted to the improbable mixture of chaste devotion and homoeroticism that exists in the materialistic Church...Hanson studies these writings of sexual pleasure as an important element of religious experience as well as a source of inspiration for the writers. -- Leo Vincent Kriz * Library Journal *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
535 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-19446-5 (9780674194465)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ellis Hanson is Assistant Professor of English at Cornell University.
Content
Introduction The Dialectic of Shame and Grace Perfect Wagnerites Christianity as Paradis Artificiel Verlaine's Amour In Praise of Shame Huysmans Mysterique Unconscious Unction Conversion Hysteria Christianity by the Back Door Refined Thebaids Pater Dolorosa Pater Noster Renaissance and Resurrection Virgin Marius Monkish Miracles The Temptation of Saint Oscar Christ for Christ's Sake Ritualism and Dandyism Seduction and the Scarlet Woman The Confessional Unmasked Priests and Acolytes Fragrant Prayers Father Silverpoints Pio Corvo Saint Oscar Redivivus Conclusion Notes Index Illustrations The Wagnerites, by Aubrey Beardsley The Ascension of Saint Rose of Lima, from Aubrey Beardsley's Under the Hill (1895) Engraving of Charcot at the Salpêtrière Drawing of Saint Philip, from Charcot and Richer's Les Demoniaques dans l'Art (1887) The Crucifixion (1512-1516), by Matthias Grunewald (detail) Salome Dancing before Herod (1876), by Gustave Moreau "Height of Fashion" (1866), from Punch "Selling off!" (1851), from Punch John and Salome by Aubrey Beardsley, from Oscar Wilde's Salome (1892) "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" (1877), from Punch