Fin de Siecle
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Eugen Weber’s France: Fin de Siècle (End of Century) covers the period of change and upheaval in France during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Weber promotes the idea that the Fin de Siècle stands on its own, apart from the Bell Époque that would follow it during the first decade of the twentieth century. However, while the Fin de Siècle France covered in most works like Weber’s focuses on the artistic and literary achievements and decadence of the two decades, Weber provides us with the reaction of different classes to this period of modernization, change, and innovation in French society. As Weber says in reference to the Belle Époque: “The fin de siècle had preceded it: a time of economic and moral depression, a great deal less redolent of buoyancy or hope. And yet a lot took place in these two decades that made life better for a lot of people” (2).Weber’s discussion of the fin de siècle does not exclude the artistic movements that characterized and immortalized the era forever. From Rimbaud and Verlaine to Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant, Weber provides us with an explanation of the artistic explosion that highlighted the decadent trends of the wealthy and artistic classes. Yet Weber is interested in showing us French society’s reaction to the radically transforming world around them. Not only were the arts being radically transformed through such movements as Art Nouveau, but politics, women’s rights, industria
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f cleansing with the drawings of Degas which feature the low round basins used to wash. It is in this manner that he provides us with a depiction of the reaction of all classes to the changing times of fin de siècle France. Weber shows us the transformations that were occurring in politics also. He uses the era’s most notorious political scandal, the Dreyfus Affair, to illustrate his case. Dreyfus was convicted and sentenced to Devil’s Island, after the Jewish Captain was accused of being a spy for Germany. Many felt it was anti-Semitism, and at the urging of Emile Zola who championed Dreyfus’ case, the case was reopened and Dreyfus eventually set free. Weber explains that the turbulence being experienced on all levels of society was also played out in the fin de siècle political arena: “The Dreyfus Affair is but one incident, albeit a major one, in the history of a restless, anxious, uneasy time during which, at least on the political stage, there seems to have been little respite between one crisis and another” (125).
By focusing on more than Bohemian intellectuals or artistic movements, Weber is able to unearth the underlying forces of industrialization and modernization that were transforming all of French society durin
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Approximate Word count = 1485
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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