The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Situated between the Victorians and Modernism, the fin de siècle is an exciting and rewarding period to study. In the literature and art of the 1890s, the processes of literary and cultural change can be seen in action. In this, more than any previous decade, literature was an active and controversial participant within debates over morality, aesthetics, politics and science, as Victorian certainties began to break down. Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker and Olive Schreiner were among the most prominent, occasionally even notorious, writers and artists of the period, challenging establishment values and producing a distinctive literature of their own. This volume includes the main currents of radical and innovative thinking in the period, as well as the attempts to resist them. It will be of great interest to students of Victorian and twentieth-century literature, art and cultural history. Psychology at the fin de siecle / Jenny Bourne Taylor Decadence and aestheticism / Dennis Denisoff Sexual identity at the fin de siecle / Richard A. Kaye Socialism and radicalism / William Greenslade Empire / Ross G. Forman Publishing industries and practices / Margaret D. Stetz The visual arts / Shearer West The new woman and feminist fictions / Sally Ledger Realism / Stephen Arata The fantastic fiction of the fin de siecle / Nicholas Ruddick Varieties of performance at the turn of the century / John Stokes Poetry / Marion Thain. Situated between the Victorians and Modernism, the fin de siècle is an exciting and rewarding period to study. This text provides a comprehensive overview of the relationships between culture, art and society in the 1890s Situated between the Victorians and Modernism, the fin de siecle is an exciting and rewarding period to study. This text provides a comprehensive overview of the relationships between culture, art and society in the 1890s