Christa Giles

Moreover, Huysmans takes the radical position that
aesthetics not only supersede art, it becomes a moral
principle in itself. Indeed it is for this reason that Wilde
speaks of it being the first ˝duty˝ of man to be as artificial as
possible. 71
The work of both Huysmans and Wilde is at all
times concerned with the relationship of man and art; this
relationship is expressed in their work as a series of
inescapable paradoxes. The note of disillusionment and
cynicism in much of Wilde’s and Huysmans’ writing is met
and contrasted with the mourning for a loss of innocence
and moments of revelation which seem to compensate in
some way for that loss. Whether or not the decadent artist
remains trapped in his own subjectivity, unable to reconcile
the actual and the ideal, he is at all times engaged in a quest
for that ideal. Thus negation, which manifests itself as
satanism, rejection of religion and traditional values and
modes of perceiving the world, becomes in a sense an
affirmation through negation. Artifice, therefore, is not
simply the rejection of nature; it is exalted by the decadent
to the level of an ideal, albeit an ideal which is unattainable.
And this idea, perhaps the crux of Wilde’s thought, was his
inheritance from the French decadent movement in general
and Huysmans in particular.
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