Lesbian decadence
Subtitle: representations in art and literature of fin-de-siècle France
By: Nicole G. Albert ; translated by Nancy Erber and William A. Peniston
Contributors: Erber, Nancy, 1951- translator; Peniston, William A., 1959- translator
Publisher: Harrington Park Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 403
ISBN-13: 9781939594075; 9781939594204
Subjects: Social life and customs; Lesbianism in art; History; Lesbianism in literature; Lesbianism
Work titles: Saphisme et décadence dans Paris fin-de-siècle
Description: In 1857 the French poet Charles Baudelaire, who was fascinated by lesbianism, created a scandal with Les Fleurs du Mal [The Flowers of Evil]. This collection was originally entitled "The Lesbians" and described women as "femmes damn es, " with "disordered souls" suffering in a hypocritical world. Then twenty years later, lesbians in Paris dared to flaunt themselves in that extraordinarily creative period at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries which became known as the Belle poque. Lesbian Decadence, now available in English for the first time, provides a new analysis and synthesis of the depiction of lesbianism as a social phenomenon and a symptom of social malaise as well as a fantasy in that most vibrant place and period in history. In this newly translated work, praised by leading critics as "authoritative, " "stunning, " and "a marvel of elegance and erudition, " Nicole G. Albert analyzes and synthesizes an engagingly rich sweep of historical representations of the lesbian mystique in art and literature. Albert contrasts these visions to moralists' abrupt condemnations of "the lesbian vice, " as well as the newly emerging psychiatric establishment's medical fury and their obsession on cataloging and classifying symptoms of "inversion" or "perversion" in order to cure these "unbalanced creatures of love." Lesbian Decadence combines literary, artistic, and historical analysis of sources from the mainstream to the rare, from scholarly studies to popular culture. The English translation provides a core reference/text for those interested in the Decadent movement, in literary history, in French history and social history. It is well suited for courses in gender studies, women's studies, LGBT history, and lesbianism in literature, history, and art.--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Translated from the French.
Table of contents: title: Part I. "At that time, Sappho was reborn in Paris"; title: chapter 1. Sappho : The Resurrection of a Myth; title: Chapter 2. The Poets' Muse; title: Chapter 3. Lesbos ; or, The Topography of a Vice; title: Part II. "Her Traits, Her Vices, and Her Sexual Aberrations"; title: Chapter 4. The Birth of the Female Invert; title: Chapter 5. A Vice or an Illness?; title: Chapter 6. A Heroine at the Crossroads of Medicine and Literature; title: Chapter 7. When the Third Sex Comes Out; title: Chapter 8. Madame Don Juan, Arlequine, and Others; title: Part III. "Damned Women or Exquisite Creatures?"; title: Chapter 9. Deadly Pleasures; title: Chapter 10. The Half-Women; title: Chapter 11. Female Narcissus; title: Chapter 12. Female Spaces, Male Gaze.