Seminar on the relationship between decadence, nationalism and primitivism

On 19 April 2024, a seminar on the connections between decadence, nationalism and primitivism will be held at the Under and Tuglas Literature Center of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Two seminal articles by decadence and/or modernism scholars will be discussed – Matthew Potolsky’s Decadence, Nationalism, and the Logic of Canon Formation (2006) and Michael Bell’s Primitivism. Modernism as anthropology (2010). The texts will be introduced by Viola Parente-Čapkova and Riikka Rossi – both members of the decadence project since the beginning of 2024.

Additional reading: Mirjam Hinrikus’s interview with Pirjo Lyytikäinen and Matthew Potolsky Flowing in the spirit of weakness, melancholy, disgust and pessimism, which was published in Sirp on 8 September 2017.

The seminar is intended for registered participants. Please register by sending an e-mail to Merlin Kirikal (merlinkirikal@gmail.com). The seminar is organised by the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre of the Estonian Academy of Sciences with the support of the research project PRG1667 “Emergence of a Civilised Nation: Decadence and Transitionality in 1905‒1940”.