New doctoral network to reinterpret decadence
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Academics and scholars at Goldsmiths are part of the first doctoral network dedicated to the study of decadence, the cultural and societal phenomenon traditionally associated with decline and decay.
The DECADOCS project will see academics in the Department of English and Creative Writing join with colleagues across Europe and the UK.
Part of the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks (MSCA DN), DECADOCS will explore decadence studies across a range of underexplored fields including architecture, fashion, food, tourism and immersive media. Students will apply for defined research projects and be supervised across two of the participating universities. As part of the programme, they will also gain training and experience in collaboration with partner organisations including museums, galleries and archives.
Professor Jane Desmarais will co-supervise the project ‘Decadent Aesthetics in British and European Cinema, 1890-1930' with the University of Burgundy, and the student will gain experience working with The Cinema Museum in Kennington. Dr Isobel Hurst, Lecturer in English, will co-supervise the project ‘Decadent Travellers and the Reception of Classical Antiquity in the Nineteenth Century’ with the University of Galway.
Bringing together researchers from the University of Burgundy, IUAV University, University of Glasgow, University of Galway, Johannes Gutenberg University, Lusófona University, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Polytechnic University of Madrid, the University of Hertfordshire, and Goldsmiths, the network forms an international and interdisciplinary consortium, which will present opportunities for collaboration between the international cohort.
The MSCA are the EU’s flagship funding programme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training.
Decadence
Decadence is defined as a period of decline following a time of accelerated progress, and is often associated with counter-cultural literature, art, and music of the late nineteenth century. Professor Desmarais is the Director of the Decadence Research Centre at Goldsmiths.
The word ‘decadence’ means decline and decay. It refers to the decline that follows a peak or high point, and it is often visualised in terms of a flower that blooms beautifully and then tips over into a phase of fade and rot.
Professor Jane Desmarais, Department of English and Creative Writing
“Decadence tends to occur at moments of cultural transition or crisis, at the ends of empires or periods when there are significant cultural transitions, such as at the end of the nineteenth century in Europe. Decadence is often against the cultural grain and a reaction against social and political progress.”
Explaining why the project is so pertinent in the present day, Professor Desmarais said, “Many people think we are actually living through a period of decadence at the moment, with excessive materialism and capitalist consumption reaching a destructive climax.”
For a recent episode of BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking on Decadence and Declinism, Professor Desmarais was interviewed alongside political journalist Tim Stanley, art critic Louisa Buck and Neville Morley, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter.