Week 15 Oscar_Wilde 英国文学导论Word

　　Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

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　　Oscar Wilde

　　1.Life Born in Dublin in1854, studied classics at Trinity College and then went to Oxford University, where he distinguished himself as a classical scholar and poet. His Father was Ireland’s leading eye and ear surgeon and his mother was a poet and author.

　　Oscar Wilde

　　Life He was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London and one of the greatest celebrities of his days. He suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned after been convicted of gross indecency 严重猥 亵罪 for homosexual acts. He died in Paris in 1900.Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas in the 1890s

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　　Photographs of Oscar Wilde Lord Alfred Douglas

　　Place: Oxford Date: summer 1893

　　Date: probably 1892 I am the love that dare not speak its name.

　　On 29 May 1884, Wilde married Constance Lloyd. They had two sons, Cyril (1885) and Vyvyan(1886). The photo shows Wilde’s wife and Cyril in 1889.

　　Oscar Wilde

　　Poetry:

　　2. WorksPoems, 1891 The Ballad of Reading Gaol, 1898

　　Fairy tales: 1888 Novel: Plays:

　　The Happy Prince and other Tales,The House of Pomegranates, 1891

　　The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892 A Woman of no Importance, 1893 The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895 Salom, 1893Only Connect ... New Directions

　　Oscar Wilde

　　3. Wilde’s aestheticism唯美主义 Oscar Wilde adopted the aesthetical ideal: he affirmed “my life is like a work of art”. His aestheticism [es‘θet s z m] clashed with the didacticism [d 'd kt s z m]启蒙主义 of Victorian novels. The artist = the creator of beautiful things.A contemporary edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

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　　A Victorian literary movement that was begun in the late 19th century. Followers believed that art should not be mixed with social, political, or moral teaching. Walter Pater’s statement ―the love of art for its own sake‖ is a good summary of aestheticism. The movement had its roots in France, but it gained widespread importance in England in the last half of the 19th century. Oscar Wilde is one of the best-known aesthetes‖[i:s'θi:ts] then.

　　Aestheticism