Thomas de Quinceys On murder considered as one of the fine arts: Black humour and the French decadents

Abstract

Thomas De Quincey (17851859) has always maintained a minor but steady following in French literary circles, due primarily to his initial reception by the Decadents in the late nineteenth century, when his work was translated, commentated, and imitated by literary tastemakers like Charles Baudelaire and Théophile Gautier. The present doctoral dissertation examines a specific text of De Quinceys On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts, first published in Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine in 1827, with sequels in 1839 and 1854 in relation to Decadent ideas on aesthetics, nature, and transgression. The dissertation also considers the black humour of De Quinceys essay, which was selected by André Breton for inclusion in his 1940 study, the Anthologie de lhumour noir, where it appears alongside similar texts from a number of French Decadent authors. What is the nature of black humour, and how does it relate to De Quinceys ideas on pleasure and violence as explored in the On Murder series?