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Oscar Wilde in Context

Part of Literature in Context

Mark Ravenhill, Sean Ryder, Jerusha McCormack, Philip E. Smith, II, Leon Litvak, Matt Cook, John Stokes, Joseph Bristow, Marcus Waithe, Richard Dorment, Susan Owens, John Paul Riquelme, Michèle Mendelssohn, Ellis Hanson, Peter Raby, Kerry Powell, Anthony Roche, Jarlath Killeen, Merlin Holland, David Clifford, James Eli Adams, Margaret D. Stetz, Josephine Guy, Jan-Melissa Schramm, Ruth Livesey, Mark W. Turner, Helen Freshwater, Barbara Caine, H. G. Cocks, Joseph Donohue, Sos Eltis, Steven Price, Richard Cave, Oliver S. Buckton, Lynn Voskuil, Russell Jackson, Ian Small
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  • Date Published: March 2017
  • availability: Available
  • format: Paperback
  • isbn: 9781316647585

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About the Authors
  • 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.

    • Places Wilde in the context of the ideological forces, aesthetic movements and styles of living that defined his era
    • Explores Wilde's Victorian, Irish and classical roots, and how he both used and transcended them to create work uniquely his own
    • Demonstrates the rich variety of Wilde's character and writing, revealing not one man but many as the product of his own self-presentations and their re-articulation since his death in many forms including opera and film
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    Reviews & endorsements

    '… this volume will serve as an indispensable primer for those who wish to fit text to context and context to Wilde.' Gregory Castle, Breac: A Digital Journal of Irish Studies

    '… Powell and Raby offer a wonderful spectrum of new and old contexts for Oscar Wilde that will interest scholars and afficionados alike. Taken together, the chapters illustrate just how impossible it is to pin Wilde down in any particular context. Like Dorian's ego, Wilde's life 'fits no single narrative', as Ravenhill reminds us. Oscar Wilde in Context is a testament to the richness of Wilde scholarship today and a welcome new addition to it.' Petra Dierkes-Thrun, Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies

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    Product details

    • Date Published: March 2017
    • format: Paperback
    • isbn: 9781316647585
    • length: 438 pages
    • dimensions: 230 x 154 x 20 mm
    • weight: 0.64kg
    • contains: 39 b/w illus.
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    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.

  • Editors

    Kerry Powell, Miami University
    Kerry Powell is the author of Acting Wilde (2009), preceded by Oscar Wilde and the Theatre of the 1890s and Women and Victorian Theatre. He edited The Cambridge Companion to Victorian and Edwardian Theatre and is Professor of English at Miami University.

    Peter Raby, Homerton College, Cambridge
    Peter Raby is the author of a study of Oscar Wilde and the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde and The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Among his other books are biographies of Harriet Smithson Berlioz, Samuel Butler and Alfred Russel Wallace. He is a Fellow Emeritus of Homerton College, Cambridge.

    Contributors

    Mark Ravenhill, Sean Ryder, Jerusha McCormack, Philip E. Smith, II, Leon Litvak, Matt Cook, John Stokes, Joseph Bristow, Marcus Waithe, Richard Dorment, Susan Owens, John Paul Riquelme, Michèle Mendelssohn, Ellis Hanson, Peter Raby, Kerry Powell, Anthony Roche, Jarlath Killeen, Merlin Holland, David Clifford, James Eli Adams, Margaret D. Stetz, Josephine Guy, Jan-Melissa Schramm, Ruth Livesey, Mark W. Turner, Helen Freshwater, Barbara Caine, H. G. Cocks, Joseph Donohue, Sos Eltis, Steven Price, Richard Cave, Oliver S. Buckton, Lynn Voskuil, Russell Jackson, Ian Small

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