Fin-de-siècle: Once more with feeling

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 5-47

  Loqueur, Walter ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0039356112     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002200949603100101     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. The literature on fin-de-siècle is immense and still growing. Among recent contributions the following ought to be mentioned: M. Teich and R. Porter (eds), Fin-de-siècle and its Legacy (Cambridge 1990), dealing with the often neglected scientific and technical aspects; S. Ledger and S. McCracken, Cultural-Politics and Fin-de-siecle (Cambridge 1995), postmodernist in inspiration dealing with England only; S. West, Fin-de-siècle (New York 1994), with the emphasis on the history of art; E.J. Chamberlain and S. Gilman, Degeneration (New York 1985)
2. J. Stoken, Fin-de-siècle, Fin-de-Globe (Basingstoke 1992). The standard works on England are R Ellman, Oscar Wilde (Harmondsworth 1988) and idems Decadence, as well as Holbrook Jackson, The Eighteen-Nineties (originally published in 1913, reprinted London 1988). On France, Eugen Weber, France, Fin-de-siècle(Cambridge, Mass. 1986)
3. A.E. Carter, The Idea of Decadence in French Literature 1830-1900 (Toronto 1958) and Koenraad W. Swart, The Sense of Decadence in Nineteenth-Century France (The Hague 1964). On Austria, C.E. Schorske, Fin-de-siecle Vienna (Cambridge 1985, reprint)
4. The play by Micard, Jouvenot, and Cohen was first performed in April 1888 in the Théãtre du Chãteau d'Eau in Pans. (The name of the third author was later deleted.) Even earlier, m 1886, the journal Voltaire had defined fin-desiecle as the passive submission under the (hated) prevailing social conditions, acceptance of the general corruption
5. F. de Jouvenot and H. Micard, Fin-de-siècle (Paris 1888). Gogo was a simpleton in French folklore, Mercadet is an artful financier in one of Balzac's novels
6. The depth of the great fear of the year 1000 has been debated by European historians since the late nineteenth century. According to one school of thought, the great fear was largely mythical, an invention of a later age; the title of Ferdinand Lot's study, Le mythe des terreurs tie Van mille (1947) is indicative. According to this school, violent anxiety was limited to some overwrought monks and, generally speaking, the more backward elements in society. According to other historians, the eschatological fears were not limited to specific sections of society and went much deeper. For recent surveys of the evidence and the state of the discussion, see Johannes Fried, 'Endzeiterwartung um die Jahrtausendwende' in Deutsches Archiv fur die Erforschung des Mutelalters (1989); Richard A. Landes, Relics, Apocalypse and the Deceits of History (Cambridge, MA 1995); Ted Daniels, Millenialism (New York 1992); Stephen O'Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse (New York 1994). Eschatological fears were expressed as the eighteenth century drew to its close. Thus, Holderhn reports strange portents such as inundations and other disasters indicating the end of history. Die Christenheit oder Europa; for some Napoleon was the incarnation of the Antichrist, but these were the exception rather than the rule
7. Vadim Kreid (ed.), Vospommanya o serebryyanom veke (Moscow 1993); Serebryanyi Vek (Moscow 1990)
8. This was the belief of, among others, Walter Binni, La poetica del decadentismo (Firenze 1949)
9. Quoted in G.L. Mosse, 'Introduction' (1968) to a reissue of Nordau's book in New York
10. In a paperback edition (Bison books) published by the University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln and London 1993)
11. Tolstoy's views on modern art were not that remote from Nordau's but Nordau could not know this, for Tolstoy's 'What is art?' was published only rive years after Degeneration
12. Preussische Jahrbücher, 1893, 'Die gute alte Zeit', 1-28
13. B. Croce, 'Gabriele D'Annunzio', La letteratura delta nuova Italia (Ban 1922). See R. Drake, 'Decadence, Decadentism and Decadent Romanticism in Italy: Towards a Theory of Décadence', Journal of Contemporary History, 17, 1 (January 1982)
14. Nordau, 7
15. New York Times, 1 January 1901
16. Washington Post, 1 January 1901
17. The Saturday Review, 5 January 1901
18. Berliner Tageblatt, 1 January 1901
19. The editorialist interpreted the Emperor's aim as 'economic world policy and peaceful competition' and he asked for more democracy at home. 22. Quoted in Eugen Weber, France, Fin-de-siecle, 243
20. 'Fin-de-Siècle', Le Petit Journal, 1 January 1901; 'Bon Siècle', Le Figaro, 1 January 1901; 'La Mission du vingtième siècle', Le Temps, 31 December 1900; 'Conte pour commencement gaiement l'année', Le Figaro, 2 January 1901; 'Au jour le jour; la fin de 1'autre siècle'. Journal des Debats, 2-3 January 1901
21. S.E. Bowman, Edward Bellamy Abroad (New York 1962)
22. Frederic William Farrar (1831-1903) was Dean of Canterbury at the time; he had been Archdeacon of Westminster in the 1880s. He is best known for his Life of Christ, which went through many editions, and for his opposition to the Church dogma of everlasting punishment
23. Joseph Hardmut, 'The Postmodern House', Architecture and the Spirit of Man (Cambridge 1943). Quoted in Jacques le Rider, 'La Postmodernité', Commentaire. Rudolf Pannwitz, 'Die Krise der europaischen Kultur', Werke, vol. 11 (Nuremberg 1917) 64. Quoted in Wolfgang Welsch, Unsere postmoderne Moderne (Weinheind Gerard Raulet (eds), Verabschiedung der (post) Modernet (Tubingen 1987)
24. Ernesto Laclau, Reflections on the New Revolutions of our Times (London 1991). On the fate of socialism in the Third World, Mark T. Berger, 'The End of the Third World?', Third World Quarterly, 2, 1994 and Christopher Clapham, 'The Collapse of Socialist Development in the Third World', Third World Quarterly, 1, 1992
25. John Lechte, Fifty Contemporary Thinkers (London and New York 1994)
26. A recent work on contemporary French culture mentions neither Lyotard nor Baudnllard, Althusser nor Bourdieu, Dumezil nor Le Doeuff, all of whom are among the chief postmodernist thinkers in Lechte's book mentioned above. Malcolm Cooke (ed.), French Culture since 1945 (London 1993). See also Antoine Compagnon, Les cinq paradoxes de la modermté (Pans 1990)
27. Frederic Jameson, a leading Marxist, postmodernist critic at Duke University. The works mentioned are: C. Belsey and J. Moore, The Feminist Reader (London 1989); B. Ashcroft et al., The Post-colonial Studies Reader (London 1995); S. During, The Cultural Studies Reader (London 1993)
28. H. Aram Veeser, The New Historicism Reader (London 1994)
29. Steven Seidman (ed.), The Postmodern Turn, New Perspectives on Social Theory (New York 1994), 126
30. Such as, for instance, I. Makaryk (ed.), Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory (Toronto 1993)
31. I am, of course, aware that others, including Arthur Marwick ('Two Approaches to Historical Study: The Metaphysical [including " Postmodernism"] and the Historical', Journal of Contemporary History, 30, 1 [January 1995]) believe that postmodernism may have greater staying power. It has a considerable institutional base in certain departments which will not quickly disappear. But its momentum is spent and the more adventurous spirits among the postmodernists will have to turn elsewhere
32. Paul R. Gross and N. Levith, Higher Superstition (Baltimore 1994). For the impact of postmodernist thought in Germany, Dietrich Bohler, 'Die Zerstorung des politisch-ethischen Universalismus, úber die Gefahr des heute (post)modernen Relativismus und Dezisionismus', Forum fur Philosophie Zerstörung des moralischen Selbstbewusstsein (Frankfurt 1988)
33. Carol Christ (Woman Spirit Rising), Mary Daly (Pure Lust), Maria Gimbutas and Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza in the United States; Christa Mulack, Hannah Wolf (a Jungian) and Gerda Weiler in Germany. For a critical survey, Philip G. Davis, "The Goddess and the Academy', Academic Questions, (Fall 1993); for a critique of anti-Jewish elements in radical feminist thinking, Charlotte Kohn and Use Korotin (eds), Sundenfal V. Antisemitische Vorurteile in der Frauenbewegung (Wien 1994); in particular, the contributions by Susanne Heine and Anita Natmessnig
34. Phil Hine, 'Chaos and Culture' in The Occult Observer, vol. II, 4 (1993), 16
35. The term occultism first appeared in French in the 1860s or 1870s, in English during the subsequent decade
36. Alain Mercier, Les sources ésotériques et occultes de la poésie symboliste 1870-1914, 2 vols. (Paris 1969-74). On occultism and nazism, N. Goodnck-Clark, The Occult Roots of Nazism (Wellingborough 1985) as well as the books by James Webb and Ellic Howe
37. Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 vols. (New York 1923-58); for the most recent period, I. Shepard, Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology (New York 1991); George A. Mather and Larry Nichols, Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult (Grand Rapids 1993)
38. J. Gordon Melton (ed.), The New Age Encyclopedia (Detroit 1990). See also The New Age Catalogue (New York 1988), M. Satin, New Age Politics (New York 1978). For critical reviews, D. Groothuis, Revealing the New Age (Downes Grove 1986), (from a Christian viewpoint), and C. Manes, Green Rage (Boston 1990)
39. The books of Judith Skutch, such as the multi-volume Course in Miracles (1975) have also been influential and were widely read
40. The US Gnosis and Green Eggs, the UK Starfire, the German Hexenzeitschrift, the Dutch Wiccam Rede, and other periodicals, sell at about $8-$12 per issue
41. The high-level magazines include Lyre (pagan) published in Ohio, and the German-language Anubis. Fenrir is a journal of Satanism, Pagan Dawn is the mouthpiece of the Pagan Federation - 'Europe's foremost Pagan Body'. Chaos International has been looking for a 'post-structural stance in modern Magic'. Chaos International, 18, 1995
42. On Dzhuna and Yeltsin's White House, Komsomolskaya Pravda, 15 February 1995; on sects in general, Korolev in Nezavisimaya Gazetta, 28 April 1994; Viktor Kuznetsov, ibid., 12 August 1992 and countless other publications
43. S. Dudakov, Istoriya odnovo Mifa (Moscow 1933)
44. Valeri Khatiushin, 'Satanism demokratu' in Molodaya Gvardiya, 9, 1994, and ibid., 3, 1995, 'Esli poimem - spasemsiya'
45. 'Conspiracy Hysteria Running Deep', Psychic News, 22 April 1995, referring to David Icke, The Robots Rebellion (New York 1994); William Cooper, Ride a Pale Horse, Arthur Findley, The Curse of Ignorance; on the other hand, Alan Morrison, a fundamentalist minister, The Serpent and the Cross (1994), sees New Age as a plot by the devil
46. The study in the twentieth century of apocalyptic visions and terrors has been largely the domain of French historians; more recently there has been a notable Anglo-American contribution by historians of religion, social psychologists and others. Their explanations range from psychoanalysis to relative deprivation and 'rhetorical theory'. Unfortunately, they have not been able to agree even on the terms used - milleniahsm and millenarianism, eschatology and apocalypse have been used more or less interchangeably. For a widely acclaimed survey covering the Middle Ages, Bernard McGinn, Visions of the End (New York 1979); for a fin-de-siécle tour through the ages, Hillel Schwartz, Century's End (New York 1990)
47. According to the Millennial Prophecy Report, at least 350 organizations in the United States and many more abroad believe in an apocalypse of sorts. Guardian, 8 April 1995. There is a substantial millenmalist literature. Perhaps the best short introduction is provided by A.T. Mann, Millennium Prophecies, Predictions for the Year 2000 (Shaftesbury 1992) and his earlier The Future of Astrology (London 1987)
48. At least seventy different dates have been given for the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, with a range of fifteen hundred years. N. Campion, The Book of World Horoscopes (Wellnigborough 1988)
49. M. Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy (London 1981)
50. For a review of Russian prophecies see S. Fomin (ed.), Rossiya pered vtorym prishestviem (Moscow 1994). This is the second edition of an anthology originally published by the Troitski-Sergiev monastery
51. B. Croce, A History of Italy 1871-1915 (Oxford 1929), 242, 261, 268