https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2463-656X
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Matthew Creasy, Murray, Alex. Decadent Conservatism: Aesthetics, Politics and the Past, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 60, Issue 4, October 2024, Page 513, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqae075
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Introducing the edited collection Decadence: A Literary History (2020), Alex Murray noted that ‘the term “decadence” is notoriously difficult to define’ (p. 1) and remarked on the hostility of ‘conservative critics’ during the nineteenth century to the formal and moral liberties of decadent artists. His new monograph, Decadent Conservatism, departs from this framing considerably: instead of positing conservatism as a force opposed to decadence, Murray now makes a strong case for discerning the influence of conservative philosophical positions and dispositions within decadence itself. As his thoughtful introduction lays out, this is partly a matter of fine-tuning recent critical models which emphasize the radical power of critique associated with decadence, especially around questions of same-sex or ‘queer’ desire. Whilst Murray does not reject readings of decadence as a tool of resistance, he provides a salutary reminder that writers and artists linked to decadence often held elitist and exclusionary political views that may now seem unpalatable.
