Understanding a movement of literature is often aided by understanding the times in which it was written: the psychology of people, politics, cultural trends, etc. This is especially true of fin de siècle literature which was most definitely a product of its time.
The Milwaukee Art Museum currently has this Jules Chéret exhibition on display, and I was able to see it during a recent trip to the city. Chéret was a leader and innovator of poster art and printing in Paris during the fin de siècle and early 20th Century. In providing context for Chéret’s work and its impact, the exhibition crystallizes several insights into the gestalt of the period.
For example, new processes had cut printing costs way down which allowed for mass production of posters for use in advertising. In short order, posters were used to promote shows, products, and retailers. Each poster was quickly out of date and disposable. The effect of this is illustrated by a painting shown in the exhibition. It depicts a metalworker crafting pots and pans in his stall, which is surrounded by walls of Chéret-esque ad posters. A pair of Parisians gawk at the posters, ignoring the craftsman.
Low-cost printing - as well as advertising income - made newspapers much more profitable even with each issue priced affordably. This led to a glut of 60 daily or weekly newspapers in Paris alone. Competition for readers was stiff, and papers wanted writers who could shock, scandalize, and deliver constant cliffhangers to keep readers coming back. This poster from the exhibit advertises the newspaper L'Echo and references two authors I've read during my Decadent reading frenzy over the past several years: Catulle Mendes and Octave Mirbeau. Much Decadent fiction was written for this purpose, and one of the charges against it is it’s ‘purple prose’ designed to entertain via shock rather than say anything meaningful.Overall, the fin de siècle represented a disruptive and rapid increase in the pace of life. Quick and spicy trampled well-crafted and deep. Decadent fiction, oddly enough, while certainly delivering the spice demanded by the times also lamented the increasingly shallow character of society in which crass consumption or acquisition (read: capitalism) rendered art disposable and intellectual discourse passe.
These are just a few features of fin de siècle Paris. It doesn’t touch on the rapid advances in technology and transportation, nor the demotion of humanity from God’s great creation to descendent of apes. There was a sense of angst, a feeling that everything was speeding out of control toward a cliff that is not unlike that of the last twenty years in the United States and other Western countries. As such, it’s very possible Decadent literature has something specific to say to us unique from Modernism, Naturalism, or Romanticism.
If you can’t get to Milwaukee to see the exhibition, there is a book available with text, additional essays, and all the posters displayed in the exhibition.
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