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Art, criticism, and the self : at play in the works of Oscar Wilde

University of British Columbia

This thesis explores the works of Oscar Wilde as they articulate and model an aesthetic of play. I show that Wilde distinguishes between true and false forms--or what I call models and anti-models--of play in a number of areas: art, criticism, and society, language, thought, and culture, self and other. My introduction establishes a context for the cultural value of play in the nineteenth century. I survey the ideas of Friedrich Schiller, who treats play in the aesthetic realm; Matthew Arnold, who discusses Criticism as a free play of the mind; Herbert Spencer, who explores play in the context of evolution; and Johan Huizinga, who analyses play in its social context. In my three chapters on Wilde's critical essays, I draw upon their ideas to describe Wilde's philosophy of play and examine how the form of Wilde's critical essays illuminates his aesthetic. My first chapter explores models and anti-models of play in Art, as they are described by Vivian in "The Decay of Lying." By exploring the role of "lying" in its aesthetic rather ethical context, Vivian demonstrates the value of the play-spirit for the development of culture. My second chapter discusses models and anti-models of play in Criticism as they are described by Gilbert in "The Critic as Artist." By refashioning the traditions of nineteenth-century criticism, Gilbert presents his own model of criticism as an aesthetic activity and demonstrates the role of the play-spirit in the development of the individual and the race. My third chapter relates models and anti-models of play in art, criticism, and social life to the modes of self-realization described by Wilde in "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." I take up Wilde's well-known paradox, that Socialism is a means of realizing Individualism, by showing how Wilde plays with these terms in an aesthetic rather than a political context. In the remaining chapters I read Wilde's fictional and dramatic texts in light of his aesthetics and treat the characters as models and anti-models of the play-spirit. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, I take the measure of play, not morality, as a guide for interpretation. In this reading Lord Henry Wotton is the novel's critic as artist, while Dorian Gray, with his literal-mindedness, his imitative instinct, and his ruthless narcissism, fails to achieve the aesthetic disinterestedness that characterizes true play. My sixth chapter traces themes related to play—game, ceremony, and performance—in Wilde's Society Comedies to demonstrate how these plays both reflect and critique the spectacle of Society and the conventions of nineteenth-century melodrama. My thesis concludes with The Importance of Being Earnest as it presents a culmination of Wilde's play-spirit and his playful linguistic strategies. I show how both the form and content of Earnest model the paradoxical ideal of play itself—that through play we may realize the experience of being at one with ourselves and on good terms with the world.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-07-17

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10928

English

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace