Baudelaire, Degeneration Theory, and Literary Criticism in Fin de siècle Spain

Abstract

This article seeks, through an analysis of the response of `psychologist critics' inspired by degeneration theory to the work of Charles Baudelaire in fin de siècle Spain, to determine the originality of the application of this theory to literary history and criticism of the Fin de siècle; to argue that this period of literary history cannot be studied meaningfully other than by reference to an international context; and to challenge the assumption that cultures considered at that time and subsequently to be peripheral were indeed cultural backwaters unreceptive to the literary developments of the day. (Ingenta)