Decadence Contra Nietzsche: Nietzsche and the Decadent Movement

Abstract Nietzsche’s focus on decadence in the 1880s coincided with the concept’s dominance on the European literary scene. There is, however, little sustained conceptual investigation of the relationship between Nietzsche’s model of decadence and the vision elaborated by authors in what has become known as the “Decadent Movement.” This article argues that such a comparison is philosophically important. On the one hand, it clarifies what is distinctive in Nietzsche’s account and echoes his reading on key points. On the other, the Decadent Movement frequently challenges Nietzsche’s analysis or centers phenomena that he can account for only with difficulty. Taking Joris-Karl Huysmans’s À Rebours as the main example, the article juxtaposes and weighs these visions of decadence on issues including immoralism, exhaustion, and unity.