THE ARTIFICIAL PARADISES OF DES ESSEINTES, A DECADENT ESTHETE

In the late nineteenth century, the discoveries of the unconscious universe and the fondness for mysterious dimensions of existence have influenced a group of young artists to probe world mysteries through the incantatory power of words. From the opposition to scientific Realism and Naturalism, and also inspired by the revolutionary poetry of Charles Baudelaire, thus arose Decadentism. The novel À Rebours, by the French novelist and art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907), is an important expression of that spirit. In that work, there is a fruitful dialogue between painting and literature, which inaugurates a new style opposing the already exhausted realistic model. Duke Des Esseintes, the eccentric protagonist of the novel, struggles to modernity and emerging bourgeoisie’s unrefined taste of emerging bourgeoisie. In his searching for a new literary model, Huysmans bet on environment descriptions and art transpositions. The painting served as an aesthetic paradigm for the novel construction, not limited only to the frequent descriptions of Moreau or Redon’s paintings, but also encompassing the way Huysmans described the furniture, tapestries, artificial flowers and fishes, book covers etc... Being outstanding was his idea, things beyond the reach for the common man, devoted to trivialities of everyday life. The transposition of art, or the creation of an artistic work by language, acquires immeasurable value to the critical Huysmans engrossing him in À Rebours. There, the critical superimpose the writer. The decadent style of Huysmans opposes the analytical reason. In his work, the art aims to retake the passion, the dream, the mystery, fear, death, totally disengaged of the desire to represent the reality.

VESTIR-SE DE SI: SOBRE IDENTIDADE E REPRESENTAÇÃO NAS TIRAS DE MURIEL/LAERTE

The question of identity is in vogue, in social theory, in the political practices, and for sure, in language studies. In many ways and under various approaches, it has been problematized. In this paper, we are especially interested in the relationship between identity and its representation as a discursive production. The identity refers to a set of own characteristics for those the subject is recognizable and known in society, while the subject is constructed by the speeches that forms itself. Thus, under the bias of Discourse Analysis and considering the perspective of Cultural Studies, we will observe the speech about the identity of genre in some strips of Muriel, a character created by Laertes, a cartoonist who in 2009 adopted the practice of crossdressing. The choice for this subject was mainly motivated by the current thematic aspects exposed in the strips, for mobilizing various discourses and discuss, through art and humor, a remarkable and controversial experience in our society. Our goal is to observe in which ways their strips reveal a need for exposure, information and affirmation about a certain identity practice, and from that, examine the discursive practices that constitute - and also contribute -  to an specific identity. We understand that Laertes’ personal experience has motivated the discourse conveyed in his recent work. An expression and exposure about his identity that tells from himself and also to himself and from many people to many others.