Oscar Wilde: Decadence and the Making of Modernism

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Oscar Wilde's life and career was anything but sterile and he left his imprint as both a dynamic artist and iconic cultural figure. The subversive subject matter of his art and his hedonistic lifestyle not only revolted against Victorian sensibilities but also introduces an approach to literature that allows us to look forward to modernism. He was an accomplished Irish playwright for the English stage influencing future playwrights and the theatre of his public trials shaped twentieth century attitudes around homosexuality and performativity. In this course we will examine a range of Wilde's texts in order to investigate how the social and sexual transgressions in his life and his work impacted early twentieth century artists around the Atlantic.