Knowra Fin de siècle Fin de siècle Fin de siècle describes the cultural atmosphere of the late nineteenth century, especially its aesthetic experimentation, decadence, and anxiety about social change.
Decadent movement : A late nineteenth-century artistic and literary movement that prized artifice, sensory refinement, and beauty over conventional morality. Its aestheticism gave fin-de-siècle culture one of its clearest artistic forms.
The Picture of Dorian Gray : Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel about a man whose portrait records the corruption hidden by his youthful appearance. Its decadent artifice and moral controversy crystallized fin-de-siècle debates.
Oscar Wilde : An Irish writer and dramatist whose wit, aesthetic theories, and 1895 trials made him a defining figure of Victorian culture. His works and public image connected aestheticism to the period’s sexual and moral anxieties.
Victorian literature : Literature produced during Queen Victoria’s reign, commonly dated from 1837 to 1901. Fin-de-siècle writing both inherited Victorian conventions and rebelled against them.
Aestheticism : A doctrine that values beauty and artistic experience as ends in themselves. Its autonomy-of-art ideal challenged the moral and social duties associated with Victorian culture.
Salome (play) : Oscar Wilde’s one-act play depicting Salome’s desire for John the Baptist and her demand for his severed head. Its stylized eroticism and biblical transgression exemplify decadent drama.
Walter Pater : An English essayist and critic who argued for intense, refined experiences of beauty and art. His writing supplied influential intellectual foundations for aestheticism.
Naturalism : A literary movement that portrays people as shaped by heredity, environment, and material conditions. Its documentary emphasis contrasts with decadent artifice and symbolic suggestion.
Degeneration theory : A body of theories claiming that hereditary, social, or racial decline threatened modern populations. It gave cultural anxieties about decline a supposedly scientific vocabulary.
The Yellow Book : A British quarterly periodical published from 1894 to 1897, associated with literary and visual experimentation. Its art and writing made fin-de-siècle innovation visible in a single publication.
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