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Abstract

The article deals with the problem of the essence of nature in the works of French decadent writers. The main attention is focused on the problem of the interrelation of such concepts as “natural” and “created” (artificial) in literary-critical articles and literary works of C. Baudelaire and J.-C. Huysmans. The article analyzes the origin of the concept of “created nature” (natura naturata), which actively opposes the “creative nature” (natura naturans). The author considers the causes of rebellion against the nature the destroyer, which is based on a negative attitude to the classical Aristotelian attitude towards “imitation of nature” as an indispensable condition for any creative person. In this context, an important place is given to S. Baudelaire, who, having ignored romantic pantheism, put forward the thesis of the futility of nature, which did not teach anything. Having thoroughly revised Russo’s sensitivities with regard to nature, in his collection of essays “The Poet of Modern Life“, he turned to its chthonic component. As for purely artistic texts, then, in our conviction, “created nature” fully appeared in the novel by J.-C. Huysmans "Сonversely", whose character des Essente, imagining himself a creator, plans to transform the world around him based on his desires and internal needs. His life credo is "artificiality", which dominates over everything else. On the example of articles and literary texts by Baudelaire and Huysmans, it is concluded that the writers of the prodecadent orientation, rejecting the principle of "mimesis", put forward the idea of "super-nature" and considered nature only as a raw material appendage of art, the supplier of material for the creator’s imagination.

Keywords

Natural creation, decadence, Baudelaire, new art, Huysmans, the despotism of nature, the artificiality, the natural beginning, critic