Decadence Today: Volutes, Unfurling Flowers, and Decolonial Excesses in Shola von Reinhold’s <i>LOTE</i> and Thuy On’s <i>Decadence</i>

Abstract This essay examines contemporary depictions of decadent aesthetic excess in Shola von Reinhold’s LOTE (2020) and Thuy On’s Decadence (2021). It posits decolonial motifs of excess as a response to male fin de siècle decadence, motifs which also serve as a new departure for contemporary decadent studies. Shola von Reinhold’s novel undermines both fin de siècle male models of decadence and contemporary forms of white, heteronormative forms of oppression by reclaiming adornment and beauty from a perspective that engages with Blackness, queerness, and transness, embodied particularly in the non-linear figure of the volute. In On’s case, her playful poetics also offer a vision of excess that challenges inherited models. The decadence of Decadence is one in which the woman of color is not an exoticized object of poetic fascination but instead able to define excess and beauty on her own terms. Granting these writers the same space in decadence studies is part of the undisciplining of the field.