EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY DECADENCE READING GROUP

Spring 2009 Theme: The Decadent Body

Image by Aubrey Beardsley, from the frontispiece to the Comedy of the Rhinegold

The Edinburgh University Decadence Reading Group is a dynamic, interdisciplinary group of staff, visiting fellows and postgraduate students who are interested in exploring and discussing the topic of decadence, broadly construed. The majority of us are based at Edinburgh University, but some are based at Glasgow, St. Andrews, Napier and Strathclyde. We come from disciplines as diverse as literature, art history, music, business, anthropology, and economics.

Our meetings are highly stimulating but relaxed and conversational affairs; they take place in the ground floor seminar room of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (Hope Park Square). Directions: http://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/map.html

We meet once a month during the academic year. What we read is determined by the group.

In addition to great conversations, the DRG also provides the opportunity to seed potential research projects and widen the network of "decadent" research interests in and around Edinburgh.

PROGRAMME

Thursday, 5 February, 3-4 pm:
Beardsley, Aubrey. The Story of Venus and Tannhauser

Thursday, 5 March, 3-4 pm:
Bernheimer, Charles. Decadent Subjects: the Idea of Decadence in Art, Literature, Philosophy and Culture of the Fin de Siecle in Europe

This will be followed, from 4-5 pm, by a talk by Dr. Michael Turnbull on the relationship between Andre Raffalovich and John Gray, and the weekly literary salon that Raffalovich hosted.

Thursday, 2 April, 3-4 pm:
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita

Join us! New members are always welcome.

If you would like to join us, or join our mailing list, please email Michèle Mendelssohn mmendels@staffmail.ed.ac.uk