Overview
- Presents the first history from the dandy’s emergence up to the present
- Follows the dandy throughout journalism, literature, visual art, philosophy, and political theory
- Offers a multi-regional approach: ranging from antebellum America to France, Holland, England, Germany, and Sweden
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature (PMEL)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
About this book
This book traces a genealogy of political dandyism in literature. Dandies abstain from worldly affairs, and politics in particular. As an enigmatic figure, or a being of great eccentricity, it was the dandy that haunted the literary and cultural imagination of the nineteenth century. In fact, the dandy is often seen as a quintessential nineteenth-century figure. It was surprising, then, when at the beginning of the twenty-first century this figure returned from the past to an unexpected place: the very heart of European politics. Various so-called populist leaders were seen as political dandies. But how could that figure that was once known for its aversion towards politics all of a sudden become the protagonist of a new political paradigm? Or was the dandy perhaps always already part of a political imagination? This study charts the emergence of this political paradigm. From the dandy’s first appearance to his latest resurrection, from Charles Baudelaire to Jean-François Lyotard, from dandy-insects to a dandy-Christ, this book follows his various guises and disguises.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
Table of contents (8 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Reviews
“Throughout modernity, politics has become increasingly aestheticized: through propaganda and advertising, TV broadcasts and the Internet, and the fanaticism of fans. During the last century, even the worship of the worst autocrats imaginable was characterized by the fin-de-siècle cult of the genius. And even current forms of populism draw on dandyism, as Geertjan de Vugt vividly and convincingly demonstrates in his brilliant investigation of Baudelaire and his followers. Dandies are present again – not only in the literary and cultural salons, but also and especially on the stage of contemporary politics.” (Thomas Macho, Director of the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften, Vienna)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Geertjan de Vugt works for the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in Comparative Literature cum laude from Tilburg University and was awarded the prize for Best Dissertation in the Humanities by the Society of Dutch Literature. He is the Dutch translator of Daniel Heller-Roazen’s The Enemy of All: Piracy and the Law of Nations and Thomas Macho’s Das Leben ist ungerecht.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Political Dandyism in Literature and Art
Book Subtitle: Genealogy of a Paradigm
Authors: Geertjan de Vugt
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90896-0
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-90895-3Published: 22 June 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-08125-6Published: 20 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-90896-0Published: 07 June 2018
Series ISSN: 2634-6478
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6486
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 243
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations
Topics: European Literature, Comparative Literature, Literary History