‘A dangerous form of decadence’: Decadence and the Culture Wars

Panel discussion + Staging Decadence book launch

Studio 3 (next to the George Wood Theatre), Goldsmiths, University of London 

Wednesday 11 October 2023

18.15-19.45

Featuring Cherrie Kwok, Phoebe Patey-Ferguson, and Kirsty Sedgman

Chaired by Adam Alston

In February 2022, an influential politician in the UK Conservative Party, Oliver Dowden, delivered a speech at an event organised by a rightwing thinktank based in the United States. Universities, he says, are responsible for promoting ‘a dangerous form of decadence’ that threatens the survival of democratic values at a time when war is again on the doorstep of Europe. At the heart of this danger is a ‘pernicious new ideology’ that has come to be known as ‘woke’: ‘awakened to the so-called truths of our societies. […] Just when our attention should be focused on external foes, we seem to have entered this period of extreme introspection and self-criticism, and it really does threaten to sap our societies of their own self-confidence’ (Dowden 2022). Moreover, it is not universities in general that’s the problem; it’s the study of arts, humanities and social science subjects that labour under the influence of critical theory and the pursuit of social justice.

This panel discussion takes Dowden’s speech as a point of departure for considering the roles of cultural and educational policy and debate in the manufacturing of a culture war. What are we to make of the rhetorical use of ‘decadence’ in politics and popular cultural and political writing today, not least given the fact that ‘decadence’ is an antiquated concept outside of relatively niche scholarly and literary circles? What do these circles have to offer to our understanding of decadent rhetoric? Where else – and how else – has decadence been harnessed in the political arena, and the journalistic media that attends to it? And how might artists and writers respond, as well as those who research and study their work?

Alongside the panel discussion we will be launching Adam Alston’s new book, Staging Decadence: Theatre, Performance, and the Ends of Capitalism (Bloomsbury 2023), which considers decadence and the culture wars in its final chapter.

This event is co-organised by the British Association of Decadence Studies (BADS) and Staging Decadence, and is the first in a series of BADS Jeudis exploring decadence and the culture wars.

Panelists

Adam Alston (chair) is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Theatre at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the co-editor of Decadent Plays, 1890-1930 (Bloomsbury, 2024), co-editor of a special issue of Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies on ‘Decadence and Performance’ (Winter 2021), and he runs the AHRC-funded Staging Decadence project. He has also published extensively on immersive theatre. Alongside his academic work Adam works as a dramaturg with Studio Will Dutta, as a Creative Associate with the theatre company Curious Directive, and as a producer of live performance.

Cherrie Kwok is currently completing a PhD in literature at the University of Virginia, where she is an Elizabeth Arendall Tilney and Schuyler Merritt Tilney Predoctoral Fellow at the Jefferson Scholars Foundation. She specialises in global Anglophone literatures from the long nineteenth century to today, with a focus on race, imperialism, and decadence. She is the recipient of the 2021 British Association for Decadence Studies Postgraduate Essay prize, and her writing appears in, or is forthcoming in, One More Voice: BIPOC Voices in the Victorian Periodical Press, Victorian Review, The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, The Literary Encyclopedia, and Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies. Cherrie is also currently in post as a Visiting Research Fellow with the Decadence Research Centre at Goldsmiths.

Phoebe Patey-Ferguson is a Lecturer at Rose Bruford College (Kent, UK) teaching Theatre and Social Change, Contemporary and Popular Performance, and is the Course Director for MA Queer Performance. Their research expertise is in the social context of contemporary performance, primarily festivals and clubs, with a focus on queer and trans practice. Phoebe’s performance practice has been the subject of a hit InfoWars video and their pedagogical innovations have been derided in the Telegraph, Daily Mail, on GB News, Talk TV and internationally on Fox News.

Kirsty Sedgman is an award-winning cultural studies scholar based at the University of Bristol. Her research asks how audiences find value in cultural participation, and how these experiences are made meaningful in people’s lives. She is the author of On Being Unreasonable: Breaking the Rules and Making Things Better (2023) as well as numerous academic publications, and she is Editor of the Routledge book series in Audience Research. She has also spoken on the BBC’s Front Row and World Service programmes, at BroadwayCon in New York and IETM in Croatia, and on numerous podcasts and local radio shows. Her writing has appeared in The Stage, Exeunt, and the BBC’s Expert Network, and her work has featured in outlets like the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, and the New York Times.

Location

Goldsmiths is located in New Cross, South East London.

It is a short walk from both New Cross Gate and New Cross stations (Zone 2) on the main rail network and London overground; about a 7 minute journey from London Bridge and 30 minutes from London Victoria. It is on bus routes 21, 36, 53, 136, 171, 172, 177, 225, 321, 343, 436, 453.

Studio 3 is next to the George Wood Theatre. A map to the George Wood Theatre can be found here.
(If in doubt, visit security at the main reception and they will direct you.)

For exact directions to Goldsmiths please see the How to Find Us page on the Goldsmiths website.

This is an in-person ticketed event that will not be livestreamed.

Tickets are available here.

For more information about this event, please email drc@gold.ac.uk.

Works Cited

Oliver Dowden, ‘The Threat to Democracy: Defeating Cancel Culture by Defending the Values of the Free World’, Heritage Foundation, 14 February 2022, https://www.heritage.org/europe/event/the-threat-democracy-defeating-cancel-culture-defending-the-values-the-free-world, accessed 22 April 2022.

 Image: Aubrey Beardsley, from Le Morte d’Arthur (1893-94)