L’Italie au tournant du siècle: Paradis perdu des homosexuels dans la littérature décadente européenne
Italy at the Turn of the Century: The Lost Paradise of Homosexuals in European Decadent Literature

Summary/Abstract: The choice of Italy to reveal the homosexuality of the characters seems to be a recurring stereotype in the decadent European literature at the turn of the century. The present study examines the origins of such a literary mythology by confronting various linguistic sources in order to identify an intertextual and geocritical network. The choice of a country still untouched by an industrial culture allows for epiphanic encounters whose outcome is the rediscovery of oneself by each of the characters. Confronted with monsters and other secondary mythological deities, the protagonists will experience becoming one themselves.

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