Decadent movement

Transitory, yet considerable late 19th-century literary style and movement, associated with decadence, i.e. "process, condition, or period of deterioration or decline, as in morals or art; decay" (http://www.thefreedictionary.com). Decadent writers wrote about taboo topics (such as sex and immorality) and in uncommon, very elaborate styles. Some writers of the Decadent Movement called themselves "decadent", but more often than not, the label was used by critics.

The probably most famous British Decadents were Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley. Decadence was not only present in Britain though. It also existed in Germany, France, USA and some other countries. In France, for instance Decadence was at least as influential on literature as it was in Britain. Famous French Decadents were, among others, Charles Baudelaire.

Most Decadents were influenced by Gothic novels and by the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The Decadents favored art and artifice over the natural world, and in this respect were closely aligned to the Symbolist and Aestheticist movements of the same period.

Sources

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/decadence

http://libcom.org/library/decadence-aufheben-2

http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/Decadence.htm

http://r.wisegeek.com/what-was-the-decadent-movement-in-literature.htm