Book contents
- Decadent Ecology In British Literature And Art, 1860–1910
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- Decadent Ecology In British Literature And Art, 1860–1910
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Decadent Ecology and the Pagan Revival
- Chapter 2 “Up & down & horribly natural”
- Chapter 3 The Lick of Love
- Chapter 4 The Genius Loci as Spirited Vagabond in Robert Louis Stevenson and Vernon Lee
- Chapter 5 Occult Ecology and the Decadent Feminism of Moina Mathers and Florence Farr
- Chapter 6 Sinking Feeling
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Chapter 6 - Sinking Feeling
Intimate Decomposition in William Sharp, Arthur Machen, and George Egerton
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2021
- Decadent Ecology In British Literature And Art, 1860–1910
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- Decadent Ecology In British Literature And Art, 1860–1910
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Decadent Ecology and the Pagan Revival
- Chapter 2 “Up & down & horribly natural”
- Chapter 3 The Lick of Love
- Chapter 4 The Genius Loci as Spirited Vagabond in Robert Louis Stevenson and Vernon Lee
- Chapter 5 Occult Ecology and the Decadent Feminism of Moina Mathers and Florence Farr
- Chapter 6 Sinking Feeling
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Summary
The discussion of occult feminism in Chapter 5 shifts the foundations of Decadent Ecology to a reality beyond the veil. The last chapter of this study returns to the turf from which it began with my ruminations on Holywell Cemetery. Chapter 6 examines works by George Egerton, Arthur Machen, and William Sharp, each of whom introduces a different form of paganism to their earthy decadent ecologies. The authors find in paganism scalar distortions and other forms of eco-excess that problematize distinctions between the spiritual, secular, and scientific. At the same time, while all are, today, recognized as part of the urbane, fin-de-siècle culture of Wilde and Beardsley, each, in fact, turns to the local and the rural as the site of their decadent intimacies. We hear in their often conflicted renderings of the pagan landscape voices for sexual, eco-spiritual, and regionalist politics.
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- Decadent Ecology in British Literature and Art, 1860–1910Decay, Desire, and the Pagan Revival, pp. 174 - 218Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021