Complicity in Fin-de-siècle Literature

Abstract

Abstract Complicity in Fin-de-siècle Literature analyses how notions of shared crime and guilt structured the production and perception of literature in fin-de-siècle France. It considers definitions of complicity from the period’s evolving legal statutes, as well as critical debates about malign literary influences, to achieve a deeper understanding of how cultural production forged relationships of implication and collusion between writers, readers, and critics. Discussing a range of revealing case studies, the book’s chapters cover well-known literary schools and genres—such as Naturalism, Decadence, and the psychological novel—as well as more obscure literary forms, including biographically revealing novels (romans à clef), little magazines (petites revues), and saucy magazines (revues légères). Each chapter highlights how particular literary themes or techniques encouraged readers’ identification with transgression and facilitated alternative forms of solidarity. Drawing on methods associated with close reading, literary history, law and literature studies, sociology of literature, and cultural studies, the book offers a new terminology and conceptual framework through which to analyse literary influence and reception, applicable to different historical periods and national settings. Its broad material range destabilises the boundaries between ‘high’, ‘medium’, and ‘low’ cultural brows, revealing the widespread appeal of illicit topics and subversive solidarities across the literary spectrum.