Decadence as a Theory of History

Bibliographic Data

ID4787196
AuthorsNeville Morley, Νeville Morley (0000-0003-0721-715X, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume35
Issue4
Pages573-585
Publication date2004-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Literary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0028-6087 • E-ISSN: 1080-661X
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/nlh.2005.0008
OpenAlexW2015704869
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited13

The concept of decadence is closely related to ideas of temporality and historical change. However, although it is most commonly associated with the 'cyclical' approach to history offered by writers like Spengler and Toynbee, the idea of decadence is not dependent on a single theory of history for its intellectual underpinning; it is not necessarily tied to the organic metaphor, and it does not imply a single, unvarying trajectory towards a specified terminus. This paper explores the place of 'decadence' in historiography, considering its relationship to the related (but, curiously, less controversial) notion of 'decline' and to ideas of continuity and discontinuity between past and present. It compares the narratives of modern decadence with the critiques of modernity offered by Marx and Nietzsche; these present a similar perspective on the present but emphasize possibilities for the future, whereas decadence sees only a return to one of the possibilities already mapped out in the past

Art · Decadence · Epistemology · Historiography · Literature · Modernity · Narrative · Temporality · Byzantine Studies and History · German Literature and Culture Studies · History · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism

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