Decadence and Social Change.
- Resource Type
- Literary Criticism
- Authors
- Morse, Margaret
- Source
- Modern Austrian Literature. 1977, Vol. 10 Issue 2, p37-52. 16p.
- Subject
- *DECADENCE (Literary movement)
*SOCIAL change in literature
*DECONSTRUCTION
*AUSTRIAN authors
*MIDDLE class
*SOCIAL problems
- Language
- ISSN
- 0026-7503
This article looks at the use of decadence, social change and the movement of deconstruction in analyzing the works of Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler. The feeling of decadence does not necessarily have a direct causal relation to the actual situation; it is an ideological phenomenon originating in the experience of a particular group, and it became the aesthetics of the upper-middle class. Liebelei at once tests a part of the romantic tradition and confronts social problems of sex and class relations. The play enjoyed popularity, probably because it was the last successful revival of the romantic motif of seduced innocence.