Abstract
Both G. Flaubert’s November and J. K. Huysmans’ A Rebours exhibit great anxiety about preserving a sense of identity in the face of widespread cultural change. To combat this anxiety, the decadent heroes of both novels adopt and embrace melancholic identities. By focusing on how and why their heroes construct melancholic selves, Flaubert and Huysmans afford us a wealth of insight into the anxiety that pervades cultural change, the problematic nature of identity, as well as the cultural, aesthetic, philosophical and individual value that melancholia can hold.
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