Joris-Karl Huysmans

Natasha Grigorian (Universität Konstanz)

Ed. by Tim Unwin, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 5 Feb 1848
Died 12 May 1907
Activity 1867-1907

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Other

Art Theorist/ Historian/ Critic
Poet

Resources

Huysmans' Works

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As a

fin de siècle

literary figure, Huysmans is certainly characterized by contrasts and contradictions: indeed, he is perhaps the only writer in French literary history who, in a double paradox, followed both the Naturalist and the Symbolist movements and then abandoned both in order to become first an Occult, and then a Catholic novelist. Born in Paris in 1848 to a French schoolmistress and a Dutch lithographer, he was also marked by a double national heritage that he would carry through his entire life: called Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans at birth, he would later sign his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans, or simply J.-K. Huysmans, using the Dutch equivalents of two of his French forenames. It is also significant that his father was an artist: indeed, the future writer would be…

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2505 words

Citation: Grigorian, Natasha. "Joris-Karl Huysmans". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2286, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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