1880-1910 Unseen Prose Context

Decadence

Decadence

A period of decline or deterioration of art or literature that follows an era of great achievement.

Decadent Movement

A late 19th-century artistic and literary movement, largely centred in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality. Characterised by self-disgust, sickness at the world, general scepticism, delight in perversion and employment of crude humour and a belief in the superiority of human creativity over logic and the natural world.

Max Nordau

In his book degeneration, he blamed overstimulation for both individual and national deterioration. According to him, male and female nervous complaints and the increasingly bizarre art world reflecting a general downturn in the human species.

Darwinism

The doctrine that natural selection has been the prime cause of evolution of higher forms. Disintegrated the formerly held belief that man was distinct from animal.

Eugenics Movement

A campaign that sought to improve the quality of humankind through carefully controlled selective breeding. Later associated with Nazism.

Boer War

Lasting from 1899 to 1902, Dutch colonists and the British competed for control of territory in South Africa.

Scramble for Africa

Sudden wave of conquests in Africa by European powers in the 1880s and 1890s. Britain obtained most of eastern Africa, France most of northwestern Africa. Other countries (Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Spain) acquired lesser amounts.

Colonialism

Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory.

Fear of invasion

Great Britain had the biggest navy in the world in the 19th century but new technologies made the empire vulnerable.Britain feared invasion from France, terrorists and aliens - "invasion in the tunnels", hot air balloons

Aliens Act 1905

First law to define some groups of migrants as "undesirable". Act was passed because of fears of degeneration, bad health, and bad housing conditions in London

End of the world

Late Victorian society was struck with anxiety about disease, peculiar weather, industrialisation, pollution, immigration. This manifested as apocalyptic literature.

Imperial Gothic

Most commonly refers to fiction set in the British Empire that employs and adapts elements drawn from Gothic novels such as gloomy, forbidding atmosphere. Mysticism, degeneration, irrationality, barbarism were all words associated with the "other", which came to be deeply feared.

Degeneration

Many Victorian people believed that society was coming to the end of its reign of brilliance. Many looked to Decadence as evidence of this.[FINISH]

Fin de siecle

"End of a century," mostly applied to the end of the nineteenth century (1890s). Artists and authors attempted to abandon old techniques and discover new ones.

The Orient

European scholars influentially defined the 'orient' in stark opposition to the West as mysterious, barbaric, irrational and dangerous

Aestheticism

Reverence for beauty; movement that held beautiful form is to be valued more than instructive content. Art for art's sake.

The Wilde Trial

In 1895, the popular playwright Oscar Wilde was put on trial and charged with gross indecency which lead to moral panic and anxiety

Duality of man

Gothic fiction examined the sinister alter ego, apt since London itself had a dual nature, respectable streets existing side by side with areas notorious for their squalor and violence

Jack the Ripper

Anonymous serial killer around Whitechapel, London. 1888.

Biological criminology

A commonly held belief during the 19th century was that delinquency and violent tendencies were the result of biology and genetics, rather than structural factors. Had some involvement with eugenics.

London

The largest city in the world between 1881-1925. Its labyrinthine geography and disorientating fogs were suited to fictions about modern life. Persistently labelled as 'liquid', persistently aquatic and amphibious

Separate spheres

Nineteenth-century idea in Western societies that men and women, especially of the middle class, should have different roles in society: women as wives, mothers, and homemakers; men as breadwinners and participants in business and politics

Blue stocking women

Women regarded as having too much enthusiasm for intellectual goals, rather than their cultural goals as a housewife and mother.

The New Woman

A woman of the turn of the 20th century often from the middle class who dressed practically, moved about freely, lived apart from her family, and supported herself

Dandy

A man who is much concerned with his dress and appearance

The Gothic

Literature which calls to mind gloom, mystery, and fear

Hysteria

Originating from the Greek word for uterus, historically referred to a uniquely female mental disease characterised by anxiety, insomnia, irritability and sexual audacity. There was a commonly held belief that a woman's womb could move around her body.

The Rest Cure

Prescribed to women who are agitated or depresses - given medication and not allowed to work or see people

Irish Question

The dispute initiated by Protestant Britain's takeover of Catholic Ireland in the 1700s and Britain's continued control of Northern Ireland has caused tension and violence between the two for centuries.

Indian Rebellion 1857

Indian rebellion against the English East India Company to bring religious purification, an egalitarian society, and local and communal solidarity without the interference of British rule.

British Raj

The name for the British government's military rule of India between 1858 and 1947. Occupation of India brought industrialisation to the subcontinent, but colonialism also denied many Indians equal respect and economic independence.

Edwardian Era

The period of time when King Edward VII was on the throne (1901-1910)

Christianity and religion

While the Church was still a major institution, especially as a means of maintaining social status, scepticism began to arise, largely inspired by human technological progress and Darwinism which undermined the plausibility of religion.

Romanticism

A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

Urbanisation

Following the Industrial Revolution, many moved to bigger cities to work in factories or make use of city infrastructure in other ways. This also produced a rapid population influx to these urban areas, resulting in social unrest.

New Imperialism

Historians' term for the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century wave of conquests by European powers, the United States, and Japan, which were followed by the development and exploitation of the newly conquered territories.

New Journalism

A type of writing in which the journalist presents factual information in a form usually used in fiction. Popularised in the 19th century.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behaviour and personality formation; founded psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

Sexology

The study of sexuality. During the era, more research was conducted into the nature of human sexuality, and the more perverse side of it.

Post-Colonial Theory

An approach that examines the ways in which the colonial past has shaped the social, political, and economic experiences of a colonised country

High and low culture

Art for elite, privileged, educated classes, versus cultural products that are mass-produced, available to anybody. Began to emerge during the end of the 19th century, with short stories published in newspaper columns.

Welfare State

Wouldn't be introduced by law for another few decades, but philanthropists began to bring attention to the 'deserving poor'

Deserving poor

Widows, orphans, and the handicapped; were worthy of the care of the community

New Science

An emergence of astronomy, physics, biology, and mathematics during the 16th to 18th centuries, including logarithms, analytic geometry, and calculus. The emphasis was on experimentation and tangible proof.

Literary Naturalism

A new literary school in the 1890s that spring from realism, made up of young literary rebels who imported scientific determinism into literature, viewing people as part of the animal world, prey to natural forces and internal drives without control or full knowledge of them.

Realism

A 19th century artistic movement in which writers and painters sought to show life as it is rather than life as it should be

Popular culture

Found itself fascinated by exotic, imperial terrors, fears of invasion, etc. Many were related to the fear of the unknown associated with unfamiliar worlds.

Jingoism

Extreme, chauvinistic patriotism, often favouring an aggressive, warlike foreign policy

Zulu War

War in African between the British and the Zulu during which the British gained Zulu land. 1979.

Nymphomania

Uncontrollable or excessive sexual desire in a woman

Mendel

Augustinian monk and botanist whose experiments in breeding garden peas led to his eventual recognition as founder of the science of genetics (1822-1884)

Elaboration

Opposite of Degeneration; development into a more varied, complex existence.

White Man's Burden

Idea that many European countries had a duty to spread their religion and culture to those less civilised

Ennui

Dissatisfaction and restlessness resulting from boredom or apathy. Associated with the Decadent Movement and Mal de Siecle.

Symbolist

Artist or artistic style belonging to the movement in European art and literature, c. 1885-1910, that conveyed meaning by the use of powerful yet ambiguous symbols

Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

One of the most prolific inventors in U.S. history. Among other things, he invented the phonograph, first practical light bulb, electric battery, mimeograph, and the moving picture.

Looting of Africa

The Europeans paid little attention to the rights of native Africans and many local treasures were stolen, often sent to British museums.