“The Dancer’s Reward” in The Yellow Book, (1894) by Audrey Beardsley visually impacted people by using contrast, similar to dystopia and grotesque elements together with theatre-inspired layout of the raised severed head.This composition reflects all theories that could be associated with the Decadent movement, especially the interest of the taboo and the strange. Andrew Smith’s work on Gothic Literature explores societal fears and moral boundaries, employing symbolic and visual excess to evoke unease. The phenomena Beardsley’s work portrays make his art a valuable complement to Arthur Machen’s literary explorations of the unthinkable recognisable horrors in the fin-de-siècle period.
Works cited:
Harland, Henry, editor. The Yellow Book, Vol. 1. The Bodley Head, 1894.
Available at Whitworth University Digital Commons: https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/yellowbook/1.
Smith, Andrew. Gothic Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2007.