We shall study the literary and cultural self-presentations of a decade obsessed by its own momentousness as the end of a century and even, perhaps, the end of Time. We shall examine writers' new pride in decadence, the primacy of termination and death, and the impact of the woman's movement on fiction, art, poetry, and theater of the 1890s. In this decade possessed by endings, we shall look for sometimes sinister new beginnings.

Since women seemed to have been too engrossed in experiencing the decade to write thoughtfully about it, our syllabus will feature apprehensive men. Works we shall read include Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure; Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Time Machine; Wilde, Salome, The Importance of Being Earnest, and the trial documents; Gissing, The Odd Women and New Grub Street; Kipling, The Light That Failed; Bram Stoker, Dracula; and assorted tales of mystery and terror.