A Study Of Oscar Wilde's Irishness

Oscar Wilde is a name associated with artistic genius and sartorial elegance. He is one of us,instead of one among those writers who as the centuries change lose their relevance. The questions posed by both his art and life lend his art a quality of earnestness, which he always disavowed. The reading public never fails in devotion to him within the English-speaking world or non-English-speaking-world where his genius shines through translation.Despite his undoubted talent and international success, Wilde's reputation as Irish writer remains somewhat ambiguous in relation to the land of his birth. His nationality or"Irishness"has for the most part been considered secondary as a source of inspiration or influence to his art and ideology. Questions pertaining to Wilde's nationality were introduced by the English media during Wilde trials where they portrayed Wilde's artistic beliefs as foreign, and part of a pagan plague in English art and life. Actually, Wilde personified an archetypal iconoclasm, an artistic-individualism that left him marginalized in Ireland by the Irish Literary Revival and in England (his adopted country) by problems of identity, nationality, sexual persuasion, and a shared non-conformity towards the establishment.This research is to find out the significance of nationality and exile in the political and artistic ideologies of Oscar Wilde with regard to his literary works and socialist philosophy. The evidences disinterred support the supposition that his nationality remains an integral constituent in his subsequent socio-political and artistic identities. Indeed his nationality can rarely be segregated from his art and personality. This has become more apparent in the research of both the Irish and English literary and critical responses to Wilde as an artist and individual. This thesis consists of four chapters. Besides introduction and conclusion, the major two chapters deal respectively with the formation and the reflection of his Irishness. Chapter two pertains to Wilde's parental influence on him - Irishness from his parents and his Irish background. Chapter three is the most important part of this thesis and illustrates the reflection of Irishness - Irishness in Wilde's American lecture tour, Irishness in his Vera, The Soul of Man under Socialism, Wilde's sexual orientation and crime, sin and suffering relevant to Irishness in his writings.Undoubtedly, Oscar Wilde's unique contributions to Irish literature should be rightly acknowledged, and hopefully this research will cast light on people's comprehension of this great writer's identity and the influence of his identity on his political and artistic ideology.