Fin de Siecle Literature and Culture

This paper concentrates on the reception of Italian Primitives in French literature between 19th and 20th century. A rich series of French novels and theatre pieces which mention real or imaginary Italian Primitive Paintings, Primitive painters, amateurs and forgers is here presented. In addition, a radical cultural phenomenon is described: the rejection and demonization of the Italian Renaissance and of its culture in the literary production of French novelists and aesthetes of the decadent movement. This is only one of the consequences of the cult of the Primitives illustrated in this paper, which provides punctual literary passages of, among others, Paul Eudel, Paul Bourget, Huysmans, Poictevin, Proust, the brothers Goncourt, Anatole France.

This article looks at Arthur Machen’s baffling but defining work The Great God Pan from a completely new angle. Contrary to the text’s conspicuously pagan character, the essay argues that there is a calculated Judeo-Christian scheme beneath the surface. With the detection of this scheme, the peculiarities of Machen’s narrative make sense. By making intertextual connections and comparisons, and utilizing psychoanalytic ideas, the essay argues that the main character, Helen Vaughan, is the (re)incarnation of both an antichrist and Lilith. By employing a sophisticated esoteric narrative, the text updates the Judeo-Christian myth to fin-de-siècle London. The analysis attempts to illuminate the workings of Machen’s esoteric narration, observe its effects, and comprehend its purpose. It argues that the Judeo-Christian scheme in disguise is not only a proof of Machen’s personal theory of literature, but it is also chaotic and personal: Machen’s mystical vision and narrative obscurantism involves recombination, integration, and manipulation of the Judeo-Christian tradition.