Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

A selective list of online literary criticism for Oscar Wilde, favoring signed articles by known scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Authors of Web Sites

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Literary Criticism

Alexander, Jonathan and Deborah Meem. "Dorian Gray, Tom Ripley, and the Queer Closet." A discussion of Oscar Wilde's Portrait of Dorian Gray and Patricia Highsmiths's novels. "Both Highsmith's and Wilde's novels describe how their heroes attempt to, in Dorian's words, 'multiply their personalities.' They are characters who want to be other than what they are." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 5.4 (2003) (moved or removed).

Alkalay-Gut, Karen. "The Thing He Loves: Murder as Aesthetic Experience in The Ballad of Reading Gaol." On the central act of murder which opens The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Victorian Poetry 35 (1997) (removed).

Clausson, Nils. "'Culture and Corruption': Paterian Self-Development versus Gothic Degeneration in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray." Papers on Language and Literature (2003). On the connection between Dorian Gray and Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurian and the Gothic tradition.

Ellmann, Richard and Susan Sontag. Letter exchange in the NY Review of Books on Wilde between two literary luminaries, 1977.

Fong, Bobby and Karl Beckson, eds. Introduction by Ian Small. Publisher's blurb for The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, Volume I: Poems and Poems in Prose. Oxford UP, 2000. Named Outstanding Academic Book of 2001 by Choice (moved or removed).

Foster, David. "Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, and the rhetoric of agency." Papers on Language and Literature (2001). Examination of Wilde's rhetorical strategies and motives in De Profundis. "De Profundis reproduces that fundamental conflict between power and victimization underlying the social identity Wilde had come to inhabit as an active homosexual. In the text he casts himself alternately as a tragic protagonist undone by hubris and a victim overwhelmed by repressive social forces. It is the tension between these roles that destabilizes the tone of De Profundis and creates abrupt shifts of mood.

Frankel, Nick. "'Ave Imperatrix': Oscar Wilde and the Poetry of Englishness." Victorian Poetry 35 (1997). On Wilde's national and cultural allegiance, whether English or Irish, in connection with his poetry (removed).

Jays, David. "Wilde disappointment." New Statesman, Sept 25, 2000. Examines the contemporary image of Wilde as "the first modern celebrity and a queer radical before his time; popular entertainer and harbinger of the avant-garde; Irish outsider and English wit" (removed).

Marcovitch, Heather. "The Princess, Persona, and Subjective Desire: A Reading of Oscar Wilde's Salome." Papers on Language and Literature (2004). Marcovitch contends that Salome extends Wilde's critique of aestheticism begun in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Menand, Louis. Entry on Oscar Wilde from the Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism (moved or removed).

Raby, Peter, ed. Publisher's blurb for The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. Cambridge UP, 1997.

Sandulescu, C. George, ed. Publisher's blurb for Rediscovering Oscar Wilde. Colin Smythe.

Siegel, Sandra F. "Oscar Wilde: The Spectacle of Criticism." An introduction to the career of Oscar Wilde. Cornell U Newsletter 17 (1996).

Introduction, Lighter Reading & Web Sites

Varty, Anne. "Oscar Wilde." Literary Encyclopedia. Eds. Robert Clark, Emory Elliott, Janet Todd. An introduction to Wilde, from a database that provides signed literary criticism by experts in their field, and is available to individuals for a reasonably-priced subscription.

OScholars, a website for a group of journals and web pages devoted to Oscar Wilde, John Ruskin, Vernon Lee, George Bernard Shaw, George Moore, Michael Field, Arts & Crafts, The New Woman, and more.

Merlin Holland, Oscar Wilde's grandson. Article in the (UK) Guardian, 24 Nov., 2000.

Fisher, Trevor. "Great Lovers, Episode 6: Oscar and Bossie." National Radio, Australia, 31 Aug., 2003.

"The 10 most popular misconceptions about Oscar Wilde" from the (UK) Guardian, 26 March, 2005.

"Oscar Wilde." The Victorian Web. Ed. George Landow. Essays on Wilde's writing techniques, themes, biography, and the cultural background.

Manuscripts of Oscar Wilde at the UCLA Library. "The rare book library boasts the world's largest public collection of works by and about Wilde and has long served as a Mecca for Wilde scholars."

An online exhibition in honor of the 100th anniversary of the trials of Wilde, from NYU library.

The International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures maintains an active web site and newsletter for publications and news on Irish authors, including Wilde.

Wilde's American lecture tour to San Antonio, Texas, in 1882. "Literary San Antonio." Eds. Paul McQuien and Kim G. Hochmeister.

The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, a semi-annual, refereed journal covering Pre-Raphaelite, aesthetic, and decadent art, culture, and literature.

Brief recommended secondary reading list for Oscar Wilde, from U of Virginia etext library.

Dalrymple, Theodore. "Arrested development." The New Criterion, June 2002. A prison doctor reflects on the continuing accuracy of Wilde's description of prison life in The Ballad of Reading Gaol (moved or removed).

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