Fin De Siecle/Fin Du Globe: Fears and Fantasies of the Late Nineteenth Century

About the book

About Fin De Siecle/Fin Du Globe: Fears and Fantasies of the Late Nineteenth Century

When centuries end, terminal myths begin to accrue, creating an ominous mood of fin de siecle/fin du globe. A superstitious belief that history is measured by the calendar comes into play. The twelve internationally distinguished scholars who have contributed to this timely book were asked to take part in a collaborative act of demystification: a reconsideration of the eschatological ideas of the last fin de siecle, the notorious 1890s, in the light of the critical thought of the 1990s. Their essays draw upon a range of contemporary approaches, Marxist, feminist, psychoanalytic and deconstructionist, and are broadly interdisciplinary. Major writers are set in context, among them Conrad, Morris, Wells, and Wilde. The ideas of Freud and Nietzsche are held up to scrutiny. Developments in music, mathematics and the fine arts are re-examined. All the essays are characterized by a high degree of intellectual commitment, and by an emerging realization that, with a century's hindsight, the late 1800s should be seen not so much as a period of decadent decline as of discovery, growth, and healthy disturbance in unexpected places.

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