Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin de Siècle: Identity and Empire

British culture in the 1880s and 1890s was marked by a strong sense of decline. Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin de Siècle examines the ways in which perceptions of loss were cast into archetypal stories that sought to account for the culture's troubles and assuage its anxieties. By examining the work of a wide range of writers--from Kipling to Wilde, from Stevenson to Stoker--Stephen Arata shows how the nation's twin obsessions with decadence and imperialism became intertwined in the thought of the period. It has been widely recognized that British culture in the 1880s and 1890s was marked by a sense of irretrievable decline. Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin de Siecle explores the ways in which that perception of loss was cast into narrative, into archetypal stories which sought to account for the culture's troubles and perhaps assuage its anxieties. Stephen Arata pays close attention to fin-de-siecle representations of three forms of decline - national, biological, and aesthetic - and reveals how late-Victorian degeneration theory was used to 'explain' such decline. By examining a wide range of writers - from Kipling to Wilde, from Symonds to Conan Doyle and Stoker - Arata shows how the nation's twin obsessions with decadence and imperialism became intertwined in the thought of the period. His account offers new insights for students and scholars of the fin de siecle. Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin de Siècle explores the ways in which that perception of loss was cast into narrative, into archetypal stories which sought to account for the culture's troubles and perhaps assuage its anxieties. Stephen Arata. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.