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Decadence, Literature, and Society
Research Guide
What is Decadence, Literature, and Society?
Decadence, Literature, and Society is a scholarly field examining the interplay of cultural decadence, literary representations, and societal structures through lenses like criminal anthropology, visual depictions of crime, biological determinism, and historical influences from department stores and colonial expositions.
This field encompasses 13,119 works exploring criminology's intersection with cultural crime portrayals and museum history. Key themes include decadence, criminal anthropology, visual representation, biological determinism, ethical quantification issues, moral insanity, department stores, and colonial expositions. It traces criminology's evolution amid cultural, social, and scientific influences.
Topic Hierarchy
Research Sub-Topics
Criminal Anthropology and Biological Determinism
This sub-topic investigates 19th-century theories linking physical traits like cranial features to criminal propensity, exemplified by Lombroso's atavism concept. Researchers analyze critiques and legacies in modern forensic anthropology.
Criminological Museums History
Studies explore the establishment, exhibits, and public impact of museums like Cesare Lombroso's in Turin displaying criminal artifacts and anthropological specimens. Research examines their role in shaping public perceptions of deviance.
Visual Representation in Criminology
This area covers depictions of criminals in photographs, drawings, and media from the fin-de-siècle, including mugshots and phrenological illustrations. Researchers assess how visuals reinforced stereotypes of moral insanity and degeneration.
Decadence and Moral Insanity in Literature
Focusing on literary portrayals in works by Huysmans and Wilde, this sub-topic examines decadence as linked to moral insanity and social decay. Studies trace intersections with symbolist aesthetics and criminological themes.
Colonial Expositions and Department Stores in Crime Perception
Research investigates how World's Fairs and early department stores displayed 'exotic' criminals and commodities, influencing bourgeois views on crime and otherness. It covers racialized criminology in imperial contexts.
Why It Matters
This field illuminates how literary and cultural depictions shaped societal views on crime and deviance, influencing policy and public perception in historical contexts. Rappaport (2001) in "Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London's West End" details how West End retail transformations redefined femininity and consumer culture, impacting gender roles in Victorian society. Borges (1993) in "‘Puffy, Ugly, Slothful and Inert’: Degeneration in Brazilian Social Thought, 1880–1940" shows degeneration theories rationalizing color discrimination, affecting Brazilian race policies until scientific shifts post-1920 dispersed such racism.
Reading Guide
Where to Start
"Drink and the Victorians: The Temperance Question in England, 1815-1872" by Harrison (1973) serves as a beginner entry because it offers an accessible analysis of industrialization's social impacts on habits and attitudes, central to decadence themes.
Key Papers Explained
Darnton (1968) in "Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France" sets a foundation for cultural shifts toward decadence, which Harrison (1973) in "Drink and the Victorians" extends to 19th-century temperance and societal moralities. Sawday (2013) in "The Body Emblazoned" builds on this by exploring Renaissance dissection culture's influence on later biological determinism views in criminology. Borges (1993) in "‘Puffy, Ugly, Slothful and Inert’: Degeneration in Brazilian Social Thought, 1880–1940" applies these ideas transnationally, linking European theories to Latin American social thought.
Paper Timeline
Most-cited paper highlighted in red. Papers ordered chronologically.
Advanced Directions
Research centers on historical criminology's cultural facets, with emphasis on criminal anthropology and visual crime representations. No recent preprints or news indicate steady focus on archival analyses of decadence in museum and exposition contexts.
Papers at a Glance
| # | Paper | Year | Venue | Citations | Open Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France | 1968 | Harvard University Pre... | 615 | ✕ |
| 2 | Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products | 1965 | Food and Cosmetics Tox... | 427 | ✕ |
| 3 | Drink and the Victorians: The Temperance Question in England, ... | 1973 | The American Historica... | 333 | ✕ |
| 4 | The Body Emblazoned | 2013 | — | 321 | ✕ |
| 5 | Negrophilia : avant-garde Paris and black culture in the 1920s | 2000 | Thames & Hudson eBooks | 281 | ✕ |
| 6 | Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London's West End | 2001 | The American Historica... | 276 | ✕ |
| 7 | ‘Puffy, Ugly, Slothful and Inert’: Degeneration in Brazilian S... | 1993 | Journal of Latin Ameri... | 238 | ✕ |
| 8 | Serial Killers: Death and Life in America's Wound Culture | 1999 | Modernism/modernity | 224 | ✕ |
| 9 | From 'The Symbolist Movement in Literature' | 1974 | Oxford University Pres... | 223 | ✕ |
| 10 | The Victorians and Ancient Rome | 1997 | Medical Entomology and... | 218 | ✕ |
Frequently Asked Questions
What role did department stores play in shaping crime perceptions?
Department stores contributed to cultural narratives around consumption and morality in urban settings. Rappaport (2001) in "Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London's West End" reconstructs London's West End as a retail center that transformed female public roles and leisure perceptions during Victorian and Edwardian eras.
How did degeneration theories influence Brazilian society?
Degeneration ideas from 1880-1940 rationalized Brazil's color discrimination using European science. Borges (1993) in "‘Puffy, Ugly, Slothful and Inert’: Degeneration in Brazilian Social Thought, 1880–1940" notes that as scientific orthodoxy rejected race theories post-1920, Brazilian intellectual racism diminished.
What is the focus of criminal anthropology in this field?
Criminal anthropology examines biological determinism and visual representations of crime. The field links it to decadence and moral insanity, as seen in discussions of criminological museums and ethical quantification.
How did literature reflect Victorian attitudes toward drink?
Victorian literature and society grappled with temperance amid industrialization. Harrison (1973) in "Drink and the Victorians: The Temperance Question in England, 1815-1872" analyzes shifts in drinking habits and attitudes, influencing 19th-century social history.
What connects Symbolism to decadence in literature?
Symbolist literature captured decadence through aesthetic and cultural critique. Symons (1974) in "From 'The Symbolist Movement in Literature'" provides foundational insights into this movement's stylistic evolution.
Open Research Questions
- ? How did visual representations in criminological museums reinforce biological determinism in 19th-century Europe?
- ? What ethical issues arose from quantification in early criminal anthropology studies?
- ? In what ways did colonial expositions shape public perceptions of crime and race in department store-era consumerism?
- ? How did moral insanity concepts evolve in decadent literature amid societal changes?
- ? What parallels exist between degeneration theories in Brazil and European criminal thought from 1880-1940?
Recent Trends
The field maintains 13,119 works with no specified 5-year growth rate; highly cited papers like Darnton's "Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France" (615 citations) and Harrison's (1973) "Drink and the Victorians" (333 citations) continue dominating.
1968Absence of recent preprints or news suggests reliance on established historical studies without new surges.
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