Goldsmiths, University of London
24 March 2023
Richard Hoggart Building, Room 137
Organised by the Decadence Research Centre at Goldsmiths
In association with the Centre for Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths
Keynote Speaker: Dr Alessandro Cabiati (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Keynote Paper: 'Marvellous Abnormalities: Fairy Tales, Decadence, and Deviance in the Late Nineteenth Century'
Decadent writers and artists repeatedly turned to the fairy tale tradition as a rich source of inspiration. They saw the fairy tale as an opportunity to showcase both its potential for subversion and their own skill at integrating adult, decadent elements within texts traditionally perceived as reserved for children. Writers such as Oscar Wilde, Arthur Machen, Jean Lorrain (Paul Alexandre Martin Duval), Renée Vivien (Pauline Mary Tarn), and Rachilde (Marguerite Eymery Vallette) transformed the fairy tale into a strikingly transgressive adult text with capacity to explore mystical, occult and esoteric spaces, reject social and literary conventionality, and embrace decadent individualism, queer desire and sexual dissidence.
Programme
9.30 Registration
10.00 Keynote
Alessandro Cabiati (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Brown University): ‘Marvellous Abnormalities: Fairy Tales, Decadence, and Deviance in the Late Nineteenth Century’
11.00 Coffee
11.30 Oscar Wilde, Olive Custance, and Jessie Marion King
Megan Williams (University of Surrey): ‘“An artist Slaying his own Soul’: Oscar Wilde, Ethel Carnie Holdsworth and l’aube de siècle radical culture’
Frankie Dytor (University of Cambridge): ‘Olive Custance and Fairy Tale Renaissance’
Michelle Reynolds (University of Exeter): ‘Decadent New Women in Jessie Marion King’s Illustrated Edition of Oscar Wilde’s A House of Pomegranates’
1.00 Lunch
2.00 Decadence, the occult, and folklore
Damian Walsh (UCL): ‘‘Many secrets and many answers: the occult rituals of Wilde’s fairy tales’
James Dowthwaite (University of Jena): ‘“Nous n’avons pu sortir du château enchanté”: The Use of the Barbe-bleu Story in Huysmans and Maeterlinck’
Naomi Fukuzawa (University of Bologna): ‘Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan as Japanese Decadent Folklore’
3.30 Tea
4.00 Walter Pater, Errol Le Cain, and B. Catling
Lina Vekeman (Ghent University): ‘Decadent myths – decadent illustrations: Walter Pater and Errol Le Cain’s Cupid and Psyche’
Victor Rees (UCL): ‘An Empire of Trees: B. Catling’s The Vorrh as 21st-century decadent fairy tale’
5.00 Drinks reception
Selected Recordings
Contact Us
Please email drc@gold.ac.uk with any queries about Decadence and the Fairy Tale.
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Conference Organisers
Eleanor Keane (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Jane Desmarais (Goldsmiths, University of London)