“Like symbolism, decadence puts forth the idea that the function of literature is to evoke impressions and 'correspondences', rather than to realistically depict the world. ... the decadent aestheticized decay and took pleasure in perversity. In decadent literature, sickness is preferable to health, not only because sickness was regarded as more interesting, but because sickness was construed as subversive, as a threat to the very fabric of society. By embracing the marginal, the unhealthy and the deviant, the decadents attacked bourgeois life, which they perceived as the chief enemy of art.”

Asti Hustvedt

Asti Hustvedt - “Like symbolism, decadence puts forth...” 1

Similar quotes

“I thought it would be such a sick joke to have to remain to be alive for decades and not believe in or feel anything.”

Douglas Coupland
Read more

“An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.”

Raymond Chandler
Read more

“I think Gummy Bears should be the universal symbol for peace, because peace leads to prosperity, prosperity leads to decadence, and decadence leads to diabetes.”

Jarod Kintz
Read more

“...of all the kinds of decay in this world, decadent purity is the most malignant.”

Yukio Mishima
Read more

“By living a life “against nature,” the deviant or pervert becomes a hero or heroine in decadent fiction.”

Asti Hustvedt
Read more