1. Landscapes of Decadence: reading sermons in stone; 2. The disappearing ghosts of Naples; 3. Paris and London, world-flowers twain; 4. Stirring the Cumnor cowslips in Decadent Oxford; 5. The glowing furnace of Decadent Wales; 6. Venice, sans hope: reading Decadent New York.
This book explores the relationship between literary politics and the politics of place in fin-de-siècle travel and place-based literature.
Alex Murray teaches in the School of English at Queen's University Belfast. His research focuses mainly on Decadence and the writing of the fin de siècle, literature and place (particularly London, New York and Paris), travel writing, modernism, and literary and critical theory. Most recently he has co-edited Decadent Poetics: Literature and Form at the British Fin de Siècle (2013), and has written a number of articles on the relationship between Decadence and the literature of the early-twentieth century in MFS Modern Fiction Studies and Modernism/modernity. His monograph, Giorgio Agamben (2010), is printed in four languages.
'In Landscapes of Decadence, Murray argues that writing of
landscapes - rural or urban - provided Decadent authors with a way
of exploring not only location, but identity … Murray's work …
convincingly examines the adaptability and evolution of Decadence
during the period.' Sally Blackburn, The British Society for
Literature and Science Reviews (www.bsls.ac.uk)
'Alex Murray generously places Landscapes of Decadence: Literature
and Place at the Fin de Siècle within the context of current
studies on Decadent British writers, but he offers a fresh
perspective on Decadent writing. His work beautifully demonstrates
the richness and continuing appeal of a movement that epitomizes
stylistic experimentation.' Martha Vicinus, Victorian Studies
Journal
'Murray's book has many merits. It is engagingly written, has a
wide and eclectic range of reference, and is organized through
a variety of tropes and metaphors that are informative and
often witty. Principal examples of these are the conceit that
allows the construction of the book's argument to be described in
terms of a physical journey, and consequently the range of
Murray's argument to be seen in terms of map-making - the
narrative development of his book is described by him as a
species of cartography.' Ian Small, English Literature in
Transition, 1880–1920
'Murray understands 'Decadence' as a set of stylistic strategies
aimed at challenging conventions by pushing them to the
point of 'dissolution', and so distinguishes it from
'decadence' as the more general watchword for conservative
reactions to cultural decline. Though the protests of decadence are
many, Murray is primarily interested in the resistance it offers to
traditional notions of place in an era of intensely nationalist
thinking. … With this close attention to place, Murray highlights
an important comparative dimension to decadence.' Robert
Volpicelli, Modernism/modernity
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