Aubrey Beardsley and British Wagnerism in the 1890s

Abstract

Abstract Aubrey Beardsley and British Wagnerism in the 1890s is an interdisciplinary study of the influence of the operas, writing, and personality of Richard Wagner (1813-1883) on the work of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898). Examining Beardsley's drawings and prose of the 1890s the study considers the ways in which Wagner's works were appropriated by this seminal figure of the British decadent movement. Despite recent critical interest in Beardsley and the 'fin-de-siècle', and considerable research on Wagnerism, Aubrey Beardsley and British Wagernism in the 1890s is the first study in English to consider at length Wagner's presence in Beardsley's work. Beardsley combined allusions to the German composer with many of the touchstones of decadent art - the exotic, the morbid, the erotic, and the mannered. In exploring Beardsley's often iconoclastic versions - or perversions - of Wagner's work Aubrey Beardsley and British Wagernism in the 1890s aims to investigate the role of Wagnerism with 'fin-de-siècle' British culture, in particular the relations between Wagnerism and contemporary decadence.