Fin-de-Siècle Modernisms
27th Annual Comparative Literature Conference
February 28 - March 1, 2025
University of South Carolina
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw dramatic literary and cultural shifts as writers and artists came to new understandings of themselves as self-consciously modern. But how, when, and where did these new understandings emerge? Conventional accounts of the period’s literary development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries assert that a series of overlapping fin-de-siècle movements (Aestheticism, Naturalism, Decadence, Symbolism) were superseded by the radical new trends of avant-garde Expressionism and Modernism. Scholars challenging this periodization have begun to trace the continuities amongst these movements, rather than seeing Modernism as a moment of cultural rupture. In what ways might we recognize the persistence of fin-de-siècle sensibilities in post-war texts? In what ways might we glimpse elements of Modernism in work from the 1890s? In what ways might we see these cultural shifts taking place in global contexts? In other words, what new narratives might be possible about the emergence of Modernism or of cultural modernity? These are just some of the questions we will be discussing in our upcoming conference on “Fin-de-Siècle Modernisms.”
Keynote Speakers
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| Dr. Kristin Mahoney (Michigan State University) | Dr. Ana Parejo Vadillo (Birkbeck College) |
Sponsored by the USC Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures &
USC Program in Comparative Literature
European Studies Committee of the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies
All events on both days will take place in the Lumpkin Auditorium, Summit West Room, or Summit East Room on the top floor of the Close-Hipp Building.
- Events around campus on conference weekend
- On campus food options and recommended resturants [pdf]
- Where to park
Conference co-organizers are Dr. Yvonne Ivory (ivory@mailbox.sc.edu) and Dr. Julie Wise (juliew@usca.edu).
Please reach out to our coordinator Hind Hosny (hhosny@email.sc.edu) with other general queries.