Decadence is a concept that designates a given historical moment as a phase of decay and valorizes the past as an irretrievable golden age. This study offers an innovative examination of a century of Japanese fiction through the analytical prism of decadence.

Decadence is a concept that designates a given historical moment as a phase of decay and valorizes the past as an irretrievable golden age. This study offers an innovative examination of a century of Japanese fiction through the analytical prism of decadence.

Introduction: The Making of Decadence in Japan 1. Immature Decadents: The Waste of Useless Men in Indulgences - Two Novellas by Oguri F?y? and Iwano H?mei 2. The Decadent Consumption of the Self: Naturalist Aestheticismin Morita S?hei's Sooty Smoke 3. Decadent Returnees: The Dialogic Labor of Sensibility in Nagai Kaf?'s Sneers and Ueda Bin's The Vortex 4. Taish? Malaise as Decadence: Self-Reclusion and Creative Labor in Sat? Haruo's A Pastoral Spreen and Tanizaki Jun'ichir?'s A Fool's Love 5. Decadence Begins with Physical Labor: The Postwar Usethe Body in Sakaguchi Ango's The Idiot and Tamura Taijir?'s Gateway to the Flesh 6. Decadence as Generosity: Squander and Oblivion in Mishima Yukio's Spring Snow 7. Capitalist Generosity: Decadence as Giving and Receiving in Shimada Masahiko's Decadent Sisters Conclusion: Toward Japanese Decadence: The Dynamics of Energy from Waste to Living Labor