ABSTRACT
Decadence and aestheticism were long seen as eccentric to the Victorian canon, both because they peaked toward the end of the century and because they systematically questioned the aesthetic and ethical standards of the time. However, in recent years they have been the focus of some of the most innovative scholarship within Victorian studies. This chapter explores the importance of gendered approaches, where queer and feminist criticism have stood in a mutually reinforcing relationship. It shows that decadence and aestheticism had their own distinctive literary aesthetics that influenced modernism while paradoxically attracting reproach from canonical modernists such as T.S. Eliot. And it charts a recent cosmopolitan turn in scholarship that puts the emphasis on the dialogue with foreign literatures and the critique of cultural nationalism. The chapter includes discussions of George Egerton, Michael Field, Vernon Lee, Walter Pater, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Arthur Symons, and Oscar Wilde.
