Annotation
OBJECTIVES
The course focuses fully on the literary and cultural atmosphere of the 1890 and in the combined form of lecture and workshop raises the major issues of the English fin de siécle. The main stress is laid on the work of Oscar Wilde, but other representatives of the Aesthetic Movement and Decadence both in literature (poetry of the Rhymers' Club, etc.) and arts (Beardsley, Morris, etc.) are included as well. The scope is occasionally extended to related topics (e.g. French influences).
MATERIAL
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray; De Profundis; Intentions and other essays; fairy tales; The Importance of Being Earnest; poems
William Morris, News from Nowhere; Art and Socialism
Aubrey Beardsley, Under the Hill
Arthur Symons, "Decadent Movement in Literature"; Symbolic Movement in Literature poems of Ernest Dowson, Arthur Symons, W. B. Yeats, John Gray etc.
J. K. Huysmans, A rebours
Barbey d'Aurevilly, Of Dandyism and George Brummel
ASSESSMENT
Credit requirements include two oral presentations (one work of fiction, one theoretical text), one essay written on a chosen topic, and active participation in the discussion over the texts.
NOTE
Scheduling of this seminar is provisional and subject to further notice.