CFP: Decadence in Central and Eastern Europe

[Kirsten Lodge]

Call for Papers:

A Leap from the Temple of Culture into the Abyss:
Decadence in Central and Eastern Europe

Conference at The Harriman Institute, Columbia University
March 15-17, 2007

The last phase of Romanticism and the first phase of Modernism, in
the West Decadence is linked with the names of Charles Baudelaire,
Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Oscar
Wilde.  It spread throughout Europe in the 1890s, intermingling
with native elements in its new contexts.  Serge Diaghilev
described Decadence as a leap from the temple of culture into the
abyss—that is, a dramatic fall from the heights of civilization
into nothingness.  Decadence thus creates a myth of culture at its
peak in the final days before its sudden perdition.  It is an
aesthetic that worships art as the highest ideal—an aesthetic of
erudition, allusion, artificiality, and literariness. 
Paradoxically, however, at the same time it also highlights the
themes of culture in decline and the degeneration of humanity.

This conference seeks to foster a nuanced understanding of the
manifestations of Decadence in central and eastern European
literature, arts, and culture within a comparative context. 
Speakers at the conference will address questions such as how
Decadence is to be understood in the region, how it differs from
the Western movement, and how it is manifested in various arts,
including literature, art, ballet, and music.  Individual panels
will put specialists in Western Decadence into dialogue with
scholars focusing on areas such as Russia, Bohemia, Poland, and
Austria, among others.  The suggested time frame is 1880-1920.   
Please submit abstracts of up to 400 words by December 10 to
Kirsten Lodge at klb57 at columbia.edu and Jon Stone
jcstone at berkeley.edu.  We especially welcome interdisciplinary and
comparative approaches, particularly those that contextualize their
subject within the pan-European decadent movement.  We also
encourage papers on cultural figures who have received little
scholarly attention, as well as papers that discuss figures not
usually considered “Decadent” within the context of the discourse
of Decadence.  Papers on Western, non-Slavic and underrepresented
Slavic cultures are also especially welcome.

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