Unhappily Ever After: Surface, Queer Bachelorhood, and Occidental Desire in Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s ‘The Siren’s Lament’ (1917)

Abstract

What becomes of the fairy tale when world-weary bachelors and aesthetic exiles enter its enchanted terrain? In the decadent tradition, the happy endings and moral certainties of the genre begin to dissolve. The arc of wish fulfilment gives way to ennui, longing, and the restless pursuit of unattainable beauty. This shift in tone and focus found an enduring embodiment in the figure of the eccentric dandy bachelor, first portrayed by Joris-Karl Huysmans in À rebours (1884) and later refined by Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). More than a stock character, he became a vehicle for transnational reworkings of the fairy tale within a decadent mode.