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Brilliant sins and exquisite amusements: Eros and aesthetics in the works of Oscar Wilde
Abstract
The study considers the relationship between Wilde's treatment of sexual subject matter and the development of his literary aesthetics from the early poetry (1881) through the social comedies which highlighted his career. In addition, the study considers the earliest critical responses to Wilde's works, since they reveal how references to sexual subject matter, particularly to homoerotic themes, were received in Wilde's own period. The critical responses to sexual themes and motifs in Wilde's works played a significant role in the development of his literary style from the lyrical poetry of his early career as a writer to the brilliantly veneered comedies with their multiple layers of sexual ambiguity and innuendo. Behind the varied approaches and the newer trends in criticism lies the fact that Wilde is a major literary figure of complex sexuality whose health was broken and his career ruined when he became the central figure in the most famous sex scandal of the late nineteenth century. Perhaps because Wilde expressed himself in so many literary forms--poetry, short stories, novella, tales, essays, plays, and literary criticism--no one has examined his literary work sequentially with regard to the treatment of sexual themes, ideas, and allusions. However, an overview of Wilde's writings suggests the clear and consistent existence of sexual subject matter to a degree which justifies a concern with the autonomy of the works themselves in forming an understanding of the relationship between sexual subject matter and Wilde's literary aesthetics.
Subject Area
Theater|British and Irish literature
Recommended Citation
Behrendt, Patricia Flanagan, "Brilliant sins and exquisite amusements: Eros and aesthetics in the works of Oscar Wilde" (1988). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9022986.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9022986