Neo-Decadence is a contemporary artistic movement, primarily focused on literature, but which embraces other modes of creative activity.
[5] Neo-Decadence, which has also been called “Post-Naturalism,” according to Daniel Corrick, in his introduction to Drowning in Beauty: The Neo-Decadent Anthology, “involves a shift in aesthetic consciousness, an altered mental state which temporarily negates our awareness of whatever utilitarian social purposes an object or person might serve.
Exploration of beauty and its meaning becomes the aim of consciousness.” In the collaborative essay “Against Neo-Passéism,” Neo-Decadence is defined in contrast to Neo-Passéism, which is described as “the unexamined artistic logic of capitalist realism,” a blanket term denoting various trends in contemporary art and writing, particularly those with a nostalgic nature or overreliance on popular culture tropes.
[6] Some Neo-Decadent authors, such as Damian Murphy, are practicing occultists and consider their work to be written in metaphysical opposition to what they perceive as the prevailingly materialist assumptions of mainstream fiction.
[7][8] Other preoccupations include fashion, self-absorption, obsession, drugs, cuisine, and excessive retro-gaming.