Dandy

The dandy stands out in the post-1848 European society, a society that is in uproar to get its independence. Struggling to find its own voice, the dandy refuses to be agglomerated to the bigger masses, more specifically the bourgeoisie that is gaining on power and influence in a now industrialized world. He designs his own taste, his own aesthetics, his own life. His sole purpose is to be, as unique and extravagant as imaginable. To this means, he pays extra attention to his dress, to his behaviour, to his being. It is all about being perceived in a certain way, the exterior having nothing to indicate about the interior; to put on a mask and create a distance with the world. The dandy lives in the world but he excludes himself from it, in a cold demeanour, in sheer observation.
After peeling off the layers in many texts, we can hardly say the dandy just “appeared” one day on the Parisian scene. The father of the dandy, ironic considering he sees himself without any origins, is indubitably the British fop. How can we understand that Anglo-French cultural crossing of such a charismatic personae from the beginning of the nineteenth century (Brummell’s exile to France) to an official adoption of the figure in France through d’Aurevilly, Balzac and Stendhal until its ultimate peak with Baudelaire, Huysmans and Wilde, himself an exiled Brit? What are the consequences on both cultures? Does it explain today’s critical fascination for it?

The Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) is one of the last European Empire to collapse with the end of World War One. Tightly linked with internal conditions such as Austro-Hungarian politics and economics, the central theme of this work concerns the emergence of the social phenomenon of dandysm in Vienna at the beginning of the XX
th
century. Remarquably modern, the social figure of the dandy is studied following the ideal-typical method, a legacy of Max Weber. Following the sociological writings of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Robert Michels, the typical portrait of the four socio-economic figures such as the bourgeois, the proletarian, the  bohemian and the aristocrat allows, in the first part of the thesis (chapter two), to show the features and to conceptually delineate the figure of the dandy. Once this portrait is forged, it is  possible to compare the Viennese reality with the case of the poet Stefan Zweig. The appearance of the dandy, at the end of the Habsburg monarchy, is not alien to many external conditions that are themselves particularly linked to this first part of the XXth century, marked notably by nationalism and World War I. Discussed in the second part of the thesis (chapter three), the economic conditions, that are expressed with either literature or journalism, reflect this social phenomenalization in which the dandy takes part. The study of the social appearance of the dandy being at the very center of this study, the  present thesis seeks to understand this phenomenon through a sociological biography of the writer and poet Stefan Zweig. In the fourth and fifth chapter, highlights of his biography meet its social resonance with dandysm through the man itself, his work, his life and the way he lived it. Finally, the influence of aesthetics and philosophy on dandy's life, especially following Friedrich  Nietzsche's very own word and ideas, will be presented as well as the importance of values of  pacifism and cosmopolitism, as influences of Jewish religion. In conclusion, I return to the ideal-type of dandy by questioning its usefulness in understanding contemporary phenomena.
Keywords
: Dandy, Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), Ideal type, Max Weber, Aesthetics, Vienna, Habsburg, Austrian-Hungarian Empire

Le présent livre souhaite analyser la notion de dandysme dans toute sa diversité et fournir un apport intéressant aux recherches littéraires en poursuivant la réflexion sur l’évolution de ses figures et de ses formes. La problématique des textes qui le composent embrasse des périodes, des cultures et des perspectives fort diverses afin de créer un portrait hybride du courant. L’ouvrage invite le lecteur à un « voyage au centre du dandysme » en s’aventurant du côté de la peinture, de l’histoire des mœurs, de la politique, de la littérature, de l’esthétique, de la musique et de la philosophie. Cette variété d’approches permet non seulement d’assurer la pérennité de son mythe, mais aussi d’ouvrir de nouveaux champs d’investigation, des perspectives inédites, voire surprenantes. Car, n’oublions pas, la première obligation du dandysme, c’est d’étonner.

"Analizując krok po kroku naturę dwóch zjawisk: la sape oraz europejskiego dandyzmu staram się ustalić ich wzajemną relację, dodatkowo oceniając stosowność użycia pojęcia dandyzm do opisu sape. W pracy zawarto także rys historyczny la sape oraz dandyzmu; dołączono również materiał fotograficzny".

Tyle oficjalne streszczenie. Praca jest wynikiem kolekcjonowania materiału przez prawie trzy lata i chociaż daleko jej do kompletności, jest, o ile mi wiadomo, najobszerniejszym źródłem o la sape w języku polskim.

Com base na tese de Walter Benjamin, Origens do drama barroco alemão e no texto Luto e Melancolia de Freud, o presente trabalho caracteriza a melancolia como o humor que permeia a modernidade. Para analisar formas de enfrentar o espírito melancólico próprio da modernidade, três personagens são caracterizados: o príncipe do drama do Barroco, sendo Hamlet o paradigma do príncipe barroco, o dândi analisado por Baudelaire e d’Aurevilly e Duchamp, o artista que inaugurou a arte moderna pós-vanguardista. Enquanto o príncipe sucumbe ao estado melancólico, o dândi e Duchamp resistem ao tédio que paira sobre as sociedades modernas, mas de formas também diferentes. O dândi apela para seu narcisismo como forma de manter seu apego à vida, enquanto Duchamp usa o humor, a brincadeira e o jogo para lidar com as incongruências da existência humana.

De dandy staat bekend als een einzelgänger en op het eerste gezicht is het een a-politiek wezen. Toch is er een bepaald slag politicus dat vaak als dandy wordt bestempeld, deze figuur bedient zich van een stijl die " populisme " word genoemd. De persoon lijkt centraal te staan in deze stijl van politiek. Het idee van het Gesamtkunstwerk is een aanknopingspunt om de relatie tussen het " persoonlijke " esthetische project van de dandy en het grootschalige esthetische project dat het vormen van een gemeenschap is, te duiden.

The Strange Case of Duke Jarosław. Mené-Mené-Thekel-Upharisim !… Quasi una phantasia by Tadeusz Miciński

The subject of the article is the characterisation of the decadent dandy figure in the novel Mené-Mené-Thekel-Upharisim !… Quasi una phantasia by Tadeusz Miciński (1931). Dedicated to the spiritual brother of Jean des Esseintes in Polish literature,-duke Jarosław Lubowiecki-, the present article traces his disappointment in the present and his distance from the world that approves only of mundane aspirations, marginalising higher needs. The hero therefore focuses on the creation of his own personality : literature, music, painting become for him a certain desirable standard, a projection of his thoughts and actions. Steeped in pessimism and skepticism, the hypersensitive aesthete at the end of the century finds a confirmation or denial of his reflections only in art.

" If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it." Avec ces quelques mots, le chef de file du Pop Art nous met en garde : Andy Warhol est un dandy. Entre culte de l’apparence et rejet d’une essence, sa remarque révèle aussi le narcissisme caractéristique des descendants d’Oscar Wilde. Avec une esthétique mettant en question la notion même d’art, Warhol joue sur plusieurs tableaux et se présente à la fois comme anarchiste et conformiste, secret et extraverti, élitiste et populaire. Il reprend ainsi les codes du dandy mais en bouleverse également la définition. Prônant la culture de masse au détriment de l’individu, le dandy pop qui aimait à se représenter en série et à engager des sosies pour ses apparitions publiques privilégie la répétition et interroge la notion d’unicité. Partisan de la «démocrasserie», Warhol est un dandy d’un nouveau genre qui, comme le remarque George Walden, a la capacité de «dandifier le peuple».