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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10928 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Punchard, Tracy Kathleen |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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