Oscar Wilde in Context (Literature in Context)

Cambridge University Press, 12/12/2013
EAN 9781107016132, ISBN10: 1107016134

Hardcover, 438 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

Oscar Wilde was a courageous individualist whose path-breaking life and work were shaped in the crucible of his time and place, deeply marked by the controversies of his era. This collection of concise and illuminating articles reveals the complex relationship between Wilde's work and ideas, and contemporary contexts including Victorian feminism, aestheticism and socialism. Chapters investigate how Wilde's writing was both a resistance to and quotation of Victorian master narratives and genre codes. From performance history to film and operatic adaptations, the ongoing influence and reception of Wilde's story and work is explored, proposing not one but many Oscar Wildes. To approach the meaning of Wilde as an artist and historical figure, the book emphasises not only his ability to imagine new worlds, but also his bond to the turbulent cultural and historical landscape around him - the context within which his life and art took shape.

Preface
Chronology
An appreciation
Oscar Wilde
the art of the somdomite Mark Ravenhill
Part I. Placing Wilde
1. Son and parents
Speranza and Sir William Wilde Sean Ryder
2. Wilde's Dublin
Dublin's Wilde Jerusha McCormack
3. Oxford, Hellenism, male friendship Philip E. Smith, II
4. An aesthete in America Leon Litvak
5. Wilde's London Matt Cook
6. Wilde and Paris John Stokes
Part II. Aesthetic and Critical Contexts
7. Wilde's poetic traditions
from Aristophanes' Clouds to The Ballad of Reading Gaol Joseph Bristow
8. William Morris and the house beautiful Marcus Waithe
9. Wilde and British art Richard Dorment
10. Aubrey Beardsley and Salome Susan Owens
11. Between two worlds and beyond them
John Ruskin and Walter Pater John Paul Riquelme
12. Wilde, Henry James, and the fate of aestheticism Michèle Mendelssohn
13. Style at the fin de siècle
aestheticist, decadent, symbolist Ellis Hanson
14. Poisoned by a book
the lethal aura of The Picture of Dorian Gray Peter Raby
15. Rewriting farce Kerry Powell
16. Bernard Shaw and 'Hibernian drama' Anthony Roche
17. Wilde, the fairy tales, and the oral tradition Jarlath Killeen
Part III. Cultural and Historical Contexts
Ideas, Iterations, Innovations
18. Oscar Wilde's crime and punishment
fictions, facts, and questions Merlin Holland
19. Wilde and evolution David Clifford
20. Dandyism and late-Victorian masculinity James Eli Adams
21. Oscar Wilde and the New Woman Margaret D. Stetz
22. Wilde and socialism Josephine Guy
23. Wilde and Christ Jan-Melissa Schramm
24. Aestheticism Ruth Livesey
25. Journalism Mark W. Turner
26. Censorship of the stage
writing on the edge of the allowed Helen Freshwater
27. Feminism Barbara Caine
28. Wilde and the law H. G. Cocks
Part IV. Reception and Afterlives
29. Reception and performance history of The Importance of Being Earnest Joseph Donohue
30. Reception and performance history of Wilde's 'society plays' Sos Eltis
31. A short history of Salome Steven Price
32. Wilde and stage design
some deductions, appraisals and selected instances Richard Cave
33. Wilde life
Oscar on film Oliver S. Buckton
34. Wilde and performativity Lynn Voskuil
35. Wilde and his editors Russell Jackson
36. Wilde's texts, contexts and The Portrait of Mr W. H. Ian Small
Further reading.