Project

The end of the nineteenth century was a pivotal moment in the process of the internationalization of culture. This research project studies the worldwide diffusion of Symbolism and Decadence in order to further our understanding of the relationship between literature, the arts and the ongoing process of globalization. We aim to research the mechanisms by which Symbolism and Decadence gained international attention and spread around the globe. These ranged from the use of the media and modern communication technologies to travel and colonial expansion.

Symbolism and Decadence therefore also give us a privileged prism through which we can view the making of world literature and the shifting negotiations of national and international literary identities in the construction of global space. We are interested in how Symbolism and Decadence map onto cultural geography and geopolitics, facilitating cultural exchange between perceived centres and margins, metropolitan and colonial spaces.