Là-Bas · Theme
Decadence and Fin de Siècle
How Là-Bas develops Decadence and Fin de Siècle.
The book embodies the decadent movement, portraying a sense of cultural exhaustion, disgust with modernity, and a fascination with the morbid, the perverse, and the historical past as an escape from the vulgarity of contemporary life.
Where it surfaces
- II
The portrayal of literary society as decadent, with Durtal's escape into the medieval past as a reaction.
- III
Carhaix's lament for the lost art of bell-ringing and the degradation of sacred music reflects the fin de siècle sense of decline and cultural decay.
- Chapter IV
Gilles de Rais is compared to Des Esseintes, embodying the decadent ideal of extreme refinement and perverse mysticism.
- XIII
The chapter embodies decadent tropes: ennui, the failure of sensual pleasure, and the grotesque reality behind romanticized desire.
- XXII
The conversation dwells on the decay of society, the loss of spiritual and artistic values, and the vulgarity of the contemporary crowd.