Author: Dimana Ivanova
Charles university, Prague
Published in: Slavyanski dialozi, VII, 2010, 10-11
Abstract: Dandysm is a literary and aesthetical phenomenon, as well as a kind of fashion and a social phenomenon. In literary texts, it’s a specific phenomenon in close connection with fashion and the way of dressing. The paper discusses the differences between dandysm, fashion, and beauty. The different stylizations of a dandy are demonstrated on the basis of examples from works by Arthur Breiský, Charles Baudelaire, Stanislav Kostka Neumann, Chavdar Mutafov, etc. In their works the dandy is seen also as stylization of the most beautiful embodied Satan. He is portrayed as women’s companion and advisor. But the dandy doesn’t fall in love with women and thus personifies the androgyn. He is different from the majority and tries to express this uniqueness through his artistic behaviour in life and in his literary works through the language of aesthetics. The dandy is also melancholic, seeking spiritual elevation through the material and paying attention to the detail in the way of fashion and dressing. His stylizations often depict a traveler and a wanderer, which are also some of the masks of the modern poet.