Oscar Wilde
The Works of a Conformist Rebel

Professor Kohl's aim is to gain fresh insight into his literary and critical œuvre of Oscar Wilde.

Norbert Kohl (Author), David Henry Wilson (Translated by)

9780521176538, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 3 March 2011

450 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.66 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Kohl's book is a long awaited basic work which gives optimal characterisation ... and never strays from its essential purpose of studying not the author's personality, but the individuality of his work.' Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht

Originally published in English in 1989, from a 1980 German edition, this book provides a comprehensive study of Oscar Wilde's work. It aims to gain fresh insight into his literary and critical œuvre by fully analysing each of his works on the basis of a textually oriented interpretation, taking equal account of the biographical and intellectual contexts. Professor Kohl's starting-point is the thesis that Wilde's identity - both personal and artistic - can only be adequately described in terms of a conflict between two opposing forces: individualism and convention. This conflict colours not only Wilde's use of Romantic and Victorian images and motifs, but also his modern portrayal of the individual's alienation from society, the loss of transcendent values, the sovereignty of subjectivity and autonomous art, and also his formal experiments with language. This is a penetrating and highly readable account of Wilde as a 'conformist rebel'.

Preface
Introduction
1. Epigonic experiments: the early poems and plays
2. The selfish and the selfless: the fairy-tales and stories
3. Personality and perfection: the lectures, Reviews and Intentions
4. Authority and autonomy: The Soul Man under Socialism
5. Culture and corruption: The Picture of Dorian Gray
6. Sensuality and suggestion: Salome and The Sphinx
7. Pathos and paradox: Lady Windermere's Fan: A Woman of No Importance
An Ideal Husband
8. Propriety and parody: The Importance of Being Earnest
9. Apologies and accusations: De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol
10. Plans, sketches and fragments
Conclusion
List of abbreviations
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]