Victorian society had strict written and unwritten laws about what was permissible in terms of personal relationships. Anglican patriarchal church values governed behaviour between the classes and enforced codes of conduct on gender related boundaries of private individuals. Society subscribed to the traditional family of man, woman and children in the context of marriage. Homosexuality amongst men was punishable by prison. Government and religion preached Christian morality, yet the number of prostitutes had never been greater. This dissertation explores the problems of a pro-homosexual and anti-establishment Victorian author writing about human relationships forbidden by society. It exposes the consequences suffered by Oscar Wilde due to his investigative insights into the `Other' in the context of individual rights of preference in regard to sexual orientation, as expressed in selected texts, and his resolution of conflict, in De Profundis. / English Studies / MA (English)

Critics and audiences alike have neglected the idea of Wilde as a precursor to Beckett. But I contend that a closer look at each writer's aesthetic and philosophic tendencies-for instance, their interest in the fluid nature of self, their understanding of identity as a performance, and their belief in language as both a way in and a way out of stagnancy -will connect them in surprising and highly significant ways. This thesis will focus on the ways in which Wilde prefigures Beckett as a dramatist. Indeed, many of the themes that Beckett, free from the constraints of a censor and from the societal restrictions of Victorian England, unabashedly details in his drama are to be found residing obscurely in Wilde. Understanding Beckett's major dramatic themes and motifs therefore yields new strategies for reading Wilde.

1) Section création Au fil de l'eau... Ma section création se compose de dix contes que j'ai réunis sous le titre : Au fil de l'eau... Mon recueil se divise en deux parties. La première est composée de cinq contes qui s'adressent à des enfants ayant entre cinq et huit ans. Ils ont pour titre : Samson, le serpent trop coquet ; Bernard-l'ermite et l'étoile de mer ; Jean et ses deux souris ; À la recherche de l'oiseau de feu ; Les deux najas. La deuxième partie réunit cinq autres contes qui s'adressent à des enfants ayant entre huit et onze ans. Ils ont pour titres : La Dame des marais ; Le masque vénitien ; La paysanne au grand cœur ; Le fils mendiant ; Les abeilles du père Martin. Au cours de ces récits, mes petits lecteurs feront la connaissance de la fée des lutins, de deux serpents poètes, d'une méchante hydre, de korrigans velus ou encore d'un masque étrange... Les thèmes abordés sont variés : la cupidité, la coquetterie, le bien, le mal, la mort du père, la recherche d'un être disparu. Le thème principal qui relie tous ces contes entre eux est le thème de l'eau, thème que je reprends également dans ma partie réflexion. A l'instar de Gaston Bachelard dans son ouvrage L'Eau et les rêves, j'ai choisi d'entraîner mes lecteurs dans une rêverie sur l'eau. Car l'eau est un élément magique, une matière universelle et si l'on peut dire privilégiée par les différentes formes qu'elle peut prendre. Certaines eaux, comme celles des lacs et des oasis, sont des eaux reflets, des eaux miroirs, propices aux métamorphoses. C'est l'histoire de Samson le serpent qui, après s'être miré dans un nénuphar du lac Tika, devient un serpent rose. Lieu de miroitement et de tranquillité, elles peuvent toutefois abriter en leur sein des monstres. C'est le récit du fils mendiant qui, après s'être assis sur les bords d'une oasis, voit surgir devant lui une hydre qui terrifie depuis sept lunes tous les habitants d'un village. D'autres eaux sont mobiles comme la vie. Elles courent tels les ruisseaux, les cascades ou les fleuves. Leur langage est dans le mouvement. Ce sera l'histoire des deux najas qui, placés dans une corbeille sur les eaux du Gange, glisseront au fil du courant en récitant des vers. Et puis, il y a la mer. Une eau maternelle qui porte et berce les êtres qu'elle abrite. La paysanne au grand cœur trouvera en son sein la baleine bleue qui la mènera aux confins de la terre pour retrouver sa petite Mariette. Mais la mer peut aussi être hostile. C'est elle qui détourne les abeilles du père Martin des fleurs de la montagne pour leur faire butiner ses fleurs de sel. Enfin, la mer peut se révéler très violente. Dans L'oiseau de feu, petit Pierre doit affronter son courroux pour aller chercher l'oiseau lumineux qui doit éloigner les bateaux des dangereux récifs de l'île aux Oiseaux. Enfin, il y a les eaux dormantes qui baignent la ville de Venise ou qui s'étendent en longs marécages d'où d'affreux petits korrigans sortent la nuit pour attirer les humains dans leurs pièges. Ami lecteur, retrouve ton âme d'enfant et laisse-toi conduire au fil de l'eau... 2) Section réflexion critique Étude sur la thématique de la liquidité dans le roman Le Portrait de Dorian Gray d'Oscar Wilde. En parallèle à ma partie création, je me suis attachée, dans la section critique de ce mémoire, à cet élément fascinant qu'est l'eau. J'ai donc fait une étude de l'élément liquide dans le roman d'Oscar Wilde. Le fait d'aborder ce texte sous l'angle thématique de la liquidité m'a amenée à explorer des voies nouvelles, à envisager le récit sous un autre point de vue. Pour mener à bien mon travail, j'ai recensé tous les thèmes, tous les signes récurrents ayant trait à la liquidité, qu'ils soient visibles (eau, vin, sang...) ou plus subjectifs (le miroir, Narcisse, Ophélie...) Puis, en me basant sur l'ouvrage de Gaston Bachelard L'Eau et les rêves, je les ai constitués en réseaux afin d'obtenir une constellation d'associations. J'ai ainsi été en mesure de découvrir le rapport privilégié qu'entretenait chaque personnage du roman avec l'élément liquide : à Basil Hallward, les « eaux composées »^ ; à Sybil et à Hetty, << les eaux printanières »^ et << le complexe d'Ophélie »^ ; à James Vane, la mer ; à Lord Henry, le vin ; à Dorian Gray, le mythe de Narcisse. Enfin, à travers ces différents réseaux, j'ai tenté de mettre à jour un principe organisateur, révélateur de l'univers d'Oscar Wilde, principe qui m'a amenée à constater combien l'eau était synonyme de destruction et de mort pour l'écrivain anglais.

This thesis investigates the way that moral and aesthetic concerns about the relationship between fiction and reality are manifested in the work of particular novelists writing at different periods in the nineteenth century, Chapter One examines an early-century subgenre of the novel that features deluded female readers who fail to differentiate between fantasy and reality, and who consequently attempt to live their lives according to foolish precepts learned from novels. The second chapter deals with the realist aesthetic of W. M. Thackeray; focusing on the techniques by which his fiction marks its own relationship both to less realistic fiction and to reality itself. The final chapter discusses Oscar Wilde's critical stance that art is meaningful and intellectually satisfying, while reality and realism are aesthetically worthless: it then goes on the explore how these ideas play out in his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. / iv, 120 leaves ; 28 cm.

Lee Kar Man Ida. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-108). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / 論文提要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.v / "Introduction The Victorian Age, the Literary Double and Freedom" --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter I --- Struggle against Restraints: Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde --- p.24 / Chapter Chapter II --- The Ambition to Transgress: Locating Freedom in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray --- p.52 / Chapter Chapter III --- Jekyll and Dorian: Impossible Mission to Achieve an Unrestrained Freedom against the Social Orthodoxy --- p.77 / Works Cited List --- p.101

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When literary movements do not grow out of specific groups who adopt a name fort heir endeavors, they have usually been named to refer to certain stylistic features. Such is the case with "Decadence," a rubric referring to specific poets in turn-of-thecentury France. Most extant work on the artists of decadent literature focuses on its stylistic elements and narrative tropes: their reaction against the image of artist/creator from Romanticism, to cast the artist as egotist; their plea for art's autonomy (as well as for art for art's sake and for the artist as society's outsider); and their idea that art must be sensationalist and melodramatic, bizarre, perverse, exotic, or artificial to make an impact. What is overlooked in traditional approaches to decadent literature is its own frequent claims to social critique, toward which Julia Kristeva points in the un-translated second half of her Revolution in Poetic Language (1974). Moreover, much decadent literature emerges at a historical moment in which a ruling class is under fire; the typical "decadent" work portrays the decline of a class, and the possible repercussions of that deconstruction for the individuals in it. To approach the literature of fin de siècle decadence as social critique, this project considers three novels taken as the three bibles of the decadent movement in French, Italian and English literatures: Huysmans' A rebours (1884), D'Annunzio's own recreation of A rebours, his own Il piacere (1889), and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). I will argue that, in this era of emergent modernism, decadent literature tries to claim a more resistant and social critical position from within class structure than does modernism, and that decadent literature, despite its superficial affinities with the Romanticism to which modernism also refers, not only is a literature of the struggle of the individual against an uncaring social world, but also underscores the necessity of reconstructing the hero/narrator's ego, as his identity reflects a class position which must be altered if it is to remain viable. / text

This thesis explores the role of Nihilism in Oscar Wilde's thought and writing, beginning with the depiction of Russian Political Nihilism in Wilde's first play; Vera, or the Nihilists and tracing the engagement with philosophical Nihilism in his fiction, drama and essays, up to and including De Profundis. It is argued that Russian Political Nihilism derives from the same sources and expresses the same concerns as the philosophical Nihilism discussed by Nietzsche in The Will to Power, and that Nietzsche and Wilde, working independently, came to a strikingly similar understanding of Nihilism. Philosophical Nihilism is defined in two ways; as the complete absence of values (Absolute Nihilism) and as a sense that, while absolute values may exist, they are unattainable, unknowable or inexpressible (Relative Nihilism). Wilde uses his writing to express Nihilism while simultaneously seeking aesthetic and ethical counterforces to it, eventually coming to see Art and the life of the Artist as the ultimate forms of resistance to Nihilism. Wilde's philosophical views are examined in the context of his time, and in the light of his exceptionally wide reading. He is compared and contrasted with Nietzsche, the philosopher who has done most to shape our view of what Nihilism means, in his ethical and aesthetic response to Nihilism. The conclusion also considers the reception of Wilde's expression of Nihilism and his employment of Art as the only superior counterforce in the first half of the twentieth century, with particular reference to the works of Gide and Proust. Their engagement with Nihilism is explored both in historical context and as a way of addressing a problem which has become uniquely pervasive and pressing in the modern era.

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Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2004. / Full text to be digitised and attached to bibliographic record. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following thesis develops a theory of parody as a multifunctional practice in relation to selected works of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and Tom Stoppard. The study discusses parody as a mode of generic engineering (rather than a genre itself) with ideological ramifications. Based on an understanding of literary and non-literary genres as social institutions, this thesis describes the practice of parody as one of engineering generic or discursive incongruity with a particular cultural purpose in mind. In refiguring generic conventions, the parodist simultaneously reworks their implicit ideological premises. Parody hence comes to serve as a means of negotiating with "the world" through generic modification, and the notions of parodic social agency and cultural work are consequently central to this thesis. Focusing on The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest respectively, Chapters Two and Three discuss Wilde's use of parody, and especially parodic "word-masks", for subverting the aesthetic and social conventions of Victorian England, and covertly propagating a gay subculture through parodic injokes. Word-masks - central to Wildean parody - entail the duplicitous use of an object text / genre as a cover under which a parodist hides other meanings. If Wildean parody might be described as claiming a covert agency, Joycean parody must, in contrast, be acknowledged as expressing deep-seated political ambivalence. Chapters Four and Five of this thesis discuss Joyce's Ulysses with specific reference to his use of parody to conflate, relativize and problematize the dominant aesthetic and Irish nationalist discourses of the early twentieth-century. Joycean parody also demonstrates parodic ambivalence and this is especially evident in what might be called his "parodic patriotism". In contrast to Wilde's and Joyce's use of parody for the expression of subversive or progressive political views, Stoppard's parodies confirm conservative English values not only in their reification of the English canon but also in terms of the ideological premises with which they invest their hypotexts. Chapters Six and Seven examine how parody can serve as one of the ways in which modem artists have managed to come to terms with tradition. Focusing on Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Travesties respectively, these chapters explore parody's capacity to function as tribute or homage to the writers of the past being parodied. Ultimately this thesis aims to demonstrate the continuum of parodic cultural work or effects of which parody, as a mode of generic engineering, is capable. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis word daar - met verwysing na geselekteerde werke van Oscar Wilde, James Joyce en Tom Stoppard - 'n teorie van parodie as multi-funktionele praktyk ontwikkel. Parodie word bespreek as 'n vorm van generiese manipulasie (eerder as 'n genre op sigself) met ideologiese implikasies. Op die basis van 'n vertolking van literêre en nie-literêre genres as sosiale instellings, beskryf hierdie tesis die praktyk van parodie as die bewerkstelling van generiese en diskursiewe ongelyksoortigheid met 'n besondere kulturele oogmerk in gedagte. In die herfigurering van generiese konvensies is die beoefenaar van parodie terselfdertyd besig om hulle geïmpliseerde ideologiese aannames te herbewerk. Parodie word dus 'n metode om met behulp van generiese modifikasie in omgang met "die wêreld" te verkeer; en die idee van die sosiale agentskap en kulturele aksie van parodie staan dus ook sentraal tot hierdie tesis. Hoofstukke Twee en Drie fokus onderskeidelik op The Picture of Dorian Gray en The Importance of Being Earnest. In hierdie twee hoofstukke word Wilde se gebruik van parodie bespreek, met besondere aandag aan sy parodiese "woordmaskers" om die estetiese en sosiale konvensies van Victoriaanse Engeland te ondermyn, asook sy bedekte propagering - deur middel van parodiese binne-grappe -- van 'n gay subkultuur. Sentraal tot Wilde se parodie is woordmaskers wat 'n dubbelsinnige gebruik van teks en genre inspan as 'n dekmantel waaronder die beoefenaar van parodie ander betekenisse verskuil hou. As Wilde se parodie beskryfkan word as bedekte bemiddeling oftussenkoms (covert agency), moet Joyce se parodie - as teenstelling - identifiseer word as 'n uitdrukking van diepliggende politiese ambivalensie. In Hoofstukke Vier en Vyf word Joyce se Ulysses bespreek met spesifieke verwysing na sy gebruik van parodie om dominante estetiese en Ierse nasionalistiese diskoerse van die vroeë twintigste eeu saam te voeg, te relativiseer en te bevraagteken.. Joyce se parodie illustreer ook parodiese ambivalensie - 'n aspek wat duidelik blyk uit wat sy "parodiese patriotisme" genoem kon word. In teenstelling met Wilde en Joyce se gebruik van parodie as uitdrukking van ondermynende of pregressiewe gesigspunte, bevestig Stoppard se parodie konserwatiewe Engelse waardes nie net in hulle vergestalting van Engelse kanoniese tekste nie, maar ook in terme van die ideologiese aannames wat hulle aan hul hipotekste toeskryf. Hoofstukke Ses en Sewe ondersoek hoe parodie kan dien as een van die weë waarlangs moderne kunstenaars daarin geslaag het om hulleself te versoen met tradiese. In Hoofstukke Ses en Sewe - waar daar onderskeidelik op Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead en Travesties gefokus word - word ook aandag geskenk aan die vermoë van parodie om te funksioneer as huldeblyk of eerbetoon aan skrywers wie se werke geparodieer word. Hierdie tesis poog om die kontinuum van parodiese kulturele werk te illustreer waartoe parodie, as 'n vorm van generiese manipulasie, in staat is.