VI. Literature of the last decades of the 19th century

A new stage of social development began during the last two decades of the 19th century Great Britain had become a highly developed capitalist country and a great colonial power The merging of individual firms into mono­ polies began. With it Britain passed to a higher form of capitalism, known as imperialism.

A violent economic crisis that occurred in the early 80s deepened the social contradictions in the country. On the one hand, the workers' movement became stronger A so­ cialist democratic league was created in 1885 by the poet and writer William Morris and Marx's daughter Eleonore Marx-Aveling. Socialist ideas began to influence the wor­ kers' movement and many important strikes took place. On the other hand, reaction intensified. The bourgeoisie looked for ways of imperialist expansion in search of new markets. The monopolies demanded still larger profits and plundered colonial peoples robbing them of raw material. In 1899 the Boer war was unleashed by Britain against the Transvaal in South Africa. This was a shameful example of its colonial brutality Puritanical hypocrisy now became the accepted form of behaviour in society A complete degradation of moral and cultural values followed.

New literary trends- Decadence, Neoromanticism and

Socialist literature- reflected the political and economic situation in Britain.

DECADENCE

The general crisis of bourgeois ideology and culture was reflected in literature and fine arts by the trend that was given the name of Decadence. This French word means "decline" (of art or of literature). M. Gorky, who made a thorough study of Decadence, considered it an unhealthy phenomenon. Decadence manifested itself in various trends that came into being at the end of the 19th century: sym­ bolism, impressionism, imagism, futurism and others.

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The most widely known manifestation of Decadence in the social life of bourgeois England was Aestheticism (a movement in search of beauty).

The roots of Aestheticism can be traced back to the

beginning of the 19th century, to some of the romanticists. It was governed by the principle of "Art for Art's Sake", that is to say of pure Art. Like the neoromanticists, the aestheticists protested against the severe and vulgar reality, against bourgeois pragmatism. However, while the neoromanticists chose the world of adventure and the cult of the strong man, opposing these to the routine of life, the aestheticists concentrated their art on pure form.

The aestheticists rejected both the social and the moral function of art. One of the leaders of the aesthetic move­ ment expressed its main idea in the phrase: "Art is indif­

ferent to what is moral and what is immoral" The aestheticists tried to lead the readers away from the problems of the day into the world of dreams and beauty.