Mal du siècle, which can be roughly translated from French as "the malady of the century", is a term used to refer to the ennui, disillusionment, and melancholy experienced by primarily young adults of Europe's early nineteenth century, when speaking in terms of the rising Romantic movement.

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  • Mal du siècle, which can be roughly translated from French as "the malady of the century", is a term used to refer to the ennui, disillusionment, and melancholy experienced by primarily young adults of Europe's early nineteenth century, when speaking in terms of the rising Romantic movement. François-René de Chateaubriand's protagonist René characterizes the Romantic ennui that would become a benchmark of the Romantic esthetic in the first half of the 19th century: René is a young man who was suffering from the moral malady kown as "le mal du siècle". This was an "état d'âme" that was not uncommon during the first half of the nineteenth century, and that was often copied and idealized in literature. It was largely ennui. Other manifestations were: melancholy of an aristocratic type, precocious apathy, discouragement without cause, distaste for living. The will seemed paralyzed by the contemplation of life's struggle. Faith and a sense of duty were alike absent. Man was "possédé, tourmenté par le démon de son cœur. " Morbid sadness was mistaken for the suffering of a proud and superior mind. There was in it all a certain "bonheur d'être triste" which attracted. This pessimistic state was analyzed in René with great subtlety and penetration. The hero was made a most original and living type, a type that was repeated in the Childe Harold and Manfred of Byron, and even, in some of its manifestations, in the Hernani of Victor Hugo. In the opinion of Chateaubriand, René was his masterpiece. Later judgments regarding it are not unanimous, but many authoritative French critics see in it one of the masterpieces of their literature. While Chateaubriand was the first to "diagnose" this "illness", it is Alfred de Musset who further popularized the notion of a "mal du siècle" in his La Confession d'un enfant du siècle (Confession of a Child of the Century). Musset notably attributed the malady to the loss of Napoléon I, the French nation's modern father figure: Voilà dans quel chaos il fallut choisir alors; voilà ce qui se présentait à des enfants pleins de force et d'audace, fils de l'empire et de la révolution. [... ] l'esprit du siècle, ange du crépuscule, qui n'est ni la nuit, ni le jour. Lo and behold in what chaos, then, one must choose; behold the choice that is given to children full of strength and audacity, sons of the Empire and of the Revolution. [... ] the spirit of the century, angel of dusk, that which is neither night nor day.
  • El mal del siglo es una expresión empleada para referirse a la crisis de creencias y valores que se desencadena en Europa a finales del siglo XIX. Se trata de un sentimiento de decadencia y hastío, de lo inútil y vano de la existencia, que afectó profundamente a los jóvenes e impregnó la Literatura de la época. Son muchos los exponentes de este sentimento colectivo, pero el más representativo es el Werther de Goethe, hasta el punto de que el mal del siglo se conoce también como el «Mal de Werther». Se considera que este malestar se debe al vacío existencial dejado por el Racionalismo Ilustración. La cultura ilustrada y la tradición de los enciclopedistas franceses habían destruido de forma empírica las bases metafísicas y religiosas de la sociedad tradicional, y esto deja sin respuesta a las nuevas demandas de sentido. Algo similar ocurriría en el Siglo XX durante el periodo de entreguerras con el existencialismo. Este sentimiento que se atrubuye a la denominada «crisis de la modernidad», aparece representado ya, sin embargo, en las palabras de Salomón en el Eclesiastés:
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  • November 2007
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  • Mal du siècle, which can be roughly translated from French as "the malady of the century", is a term used to refer to the ennui, disillusionment, and melancholy experienced by primarily young adults of Europe's early nineteenth century, when speaking in terms of the rising Romantic movement.
  • El mal del siglo es una expresión empleada para referirse a la crisis de creencias y valores que se desencadena en Europa a finales del siglo XIX. Se trata de un sentimiento de decadencia y hastío, de lo inútil y vano de la existencia, que afectó profundamente a los jóvenes e impregnó la Literatura de la época.
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  • Mal du siècle
  • Mal del siglo
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