fin de siècle

art

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French:: “end of the century”

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fin de siècle, of, relating to, characteristic of, or resembling the late 19th-century literary and artistic climate of sophistication, escapism, extreme aestheticism, world-weariness, and fashionable despair. When used in reference to literature, the term essentially describes the movement inaugurated by the Decadent poets of France and the movement called Aestheticism in England during this period.

This article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.