Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Lesbian Decadence: Representations in Art and Literature of Fin-De-Siècle France

Lesbian Decadence: Representations in Art and Literature of Fin-De-Siècle France

Albert, Nicole
Erber, Nancy
Peniston, William

Paperback

Art HistoryLiterary Criticism

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1939594200
ISBN13: 9781939594204
Publisher: Harrington Park Pr Llc
Published: Dec 6 2016
Pages: 380
Weight: 1.35
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English

In 1857 the French poet Charles Baudelaire, who was fascinated by lesbianism, created a scandal with Les Fleurs du Mal [The Flowers of Evil]. This collection was originally entitled The Lesbians and described women as femmes damnées, with disordered souls suffering in a hypocritical world. Then twenty years later, lesbians in Paris dared to flaunt themselves in that extraordinarily creative period at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries which became known as the Belle Époque.

Lesbian Decadence, now available in English for the first time, provides a new analysis and synthesis of the depiction of lesbianism as a social phenomenon and a symptom of social malaise as well as a fantasy in that most vibrant place and period in history. In this newly translated work, praised by leading critics as authoritative, stunning, and a marvel of elegance and erudition, Nicole G. Albert analyzes and synthesizes an engagingly rich sweep of historical representations of the lesbian mystique in art and literature. Albert contrasts these visions to moralists' abrupt condemnations of the lesbian vice, as well as the newly emerging psychiatric establishment's medical fury and their obsession on cataloging and classifying symptoms of inversion or perversion in order to cure these unbalanced creatures of love.

Lesbian Decadence combines literary, artistic, and historical analysis of sources from the mainstream to the rare, from scholarly studies to popular culture. The English translation provides a core reference/text for those interested in the Decadent movement, in literary history, in French history and social history. It is well suited for courses in gender studies, women's studies, LGBT history, and lesbianism in literature, history, and art.

1 different editions

Also available

Also in

Literary Criticism

View All