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

Bernheimer rereads several major thinkers and artists to rediscover the "dynamics of the decadent":

Friedrich Nietzsche , Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, and Stéphane Mallarmé. Decadent Subjects: The Idea of Decadence in Art...

Decadent art famously values artifice over nature and sophistication over simplicity. It rejects the idea that art must be "useful" or spiritually elevating. Bernheimer rereads several major thinkers and artists to

Sigmund Freud , whose emerging theories mirror the era's preoccupation with hidden urges and the subconscious. Decadent Subjects: The Idea of Decadence in Art...