Nordic Literary Decadence

Abstract

This article maps literary decadence in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, and Finland. Nordic decadence is not a clear-cut movement but rather a cultural response to French naturalism, symbolism, decadence, and German philosophy. It has been broadly understood to include works that thematize decay and analyze the supposed decay of modernity and modern humanity. This article focuses on the “core decadence” (in contrast to naturalistic depictions of decay) of Nordic works in which the visions and experiential sphere of neurotic (usually male) heroes explore larger social vistas as the characters both reflect upon decay and illustrate the processes of shattering and dissolution connected to decadence. Examples include J. P. Jacobsen’s Niels Lyhne (1880) and Herman Bang’s Haabløse Slægter (Hopeless families, 1880), both of which appeared before Huysmans’s À rebours (Against Nature, 1884), the usual paradigmatic example of decadence. These texts and others reflect, imitate, modify, comment on, and reconfigure European decadence in the light of Nordic circumstances and traditions.