The Reactions of French Artists and Intellectuals to Modernization: the Avant-Garde and Decadence, 1880-1900

FAIN: FR-10348-78

J. Wayne Walker
Unaffiliated independent scholar

To analyze the reactions of French artists and intellectuals to modernization during the period 1880 to 1900 and to examine the relationship between French Decadence and Romanticism. The role of the alienated artist and intellectual as a social reformer will be studied and a determination made as to the extent that art can serve political and social ends without losing its integrity. This project, while exploring different artistic and intellectual reactions to modernization, will focus on the unity of the avant-garde movement.