Overview

Explores the influence of contemporary radicalism over Oscar Wilde Offers a new, politicised interpretation of Wilde's most famous literary worksContextualises Wilde's writing by reading it against the contemporary political crises that it addressed Focuses on archival research, drawing on Wilde's correspondence, reviews, interviews, unpublished lectures and speechesProvides a theoretical approach to Wilde's subversive opinions on the problems posed by capitalism, property and empire, and how he consistently opposed the authority of the state in bourgeois-imperial BritainClarifies the relationship between Wilde's aestheticism, his anticolonial beliefs and his support for anarchism This book reads Oscar Wilde's literary texts in relation to his open support for revolutionaries, along with his expressions of solidarity with Irish republicans, anarchists, workers and migrants. Framing Wilde's literary writing in relation to his very active participation in the radical political culture of the fin de siecle, Donghaile argues that, contrary to contemporary representations of Wilde as an effete and socially disengaged figure, his aesthetical radicalism was informed by and contributed to a broader set of progressive political initiatives being pursued at the end of the nineteenth century. Consisting of previously unpublished material, the book provides a politicised and historicised account of Wilde's key works by situating them within the framework of his very pronounced ideological commitment to these radical political causes.

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9781474459433

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Reviews

"Deagl�n � Donghaile's well-researched monograph deftly tackles a field that lends itself to illuminating investigation. [...] [a] cogent exploration of a stratified discursive terrain makes it hard for anyone to still flirt with the idea that Wilde's aesthetic and individualist tenets might be just synonymous with social detachment or political escapism.--Laura Giovannelli ""Studi Irlandesi"" Through apt references to the cultural context and the judicious use of archival material, this monograph establishes Oscar Wilde as a prominent figure of nineteenth-century radicalism.--Di Luca Pinelli ""The Italian Oscar Wilde Society Newsletter"" � Donghaile... advances a case for Wilde's entire body of work as an expression of radical political thinking. Considering Wilde's liminal place in English history, exiting the Victorian era and pointing at the modernism to come, this argument represents a useful intervention into Wilde's place in the intellectual history of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland and England. The accessible prose and scrupulous research in this volume serve as a well from which those interested in Wilde's political beliefs can draw.--Brice Ezell, University of Texas ""Modernism/Modernity"" � Donghaile... incorporates pertinent analyses of Wilde's anarchist affiliations and also ranges knowledgeably across the spectrum of fin-de-si�cle radicalism. In addition, � Donghaile repeatedly highlights Wilde's observations on Ireland, making his book an important contribution to the academic category of the Irish Wilde.--Richard Haslam ""Wildean (number 59, July 2021)"" ...in Oscar Wilde and the Radical Politics of the Fin de Si�cle, Deagl�n � Donghaile provides the most extensive re-reading yet of Wilde as consistently 'radical throughout his entire oeuvre', in which he is represented as (both openly and in coded form) expressing intellectual solidarity with a range of left-wing thinkers, activists and ideas. � Donghaile works his way through Wilde's life and work, moving from the American lecture tour at the start of his career to his prison writing, De Profundis (1905) and The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and provides provocative and stimulating analysis of an extensive range of material. I want to particularly single out the brilliant (and mostly convincing) reading of his early and very neglected (and, to my mind, underrated play) Vera, or The Nihilists (1883) as an anticolonial intervention into Irish land politics. One of the most impressive aspects of this book is the way in which � Donghaile connects Wilde to an extraordinary range of left-wing thinkers, arguing that even if Wilde has been much misunderstood politically, his ideological commitments were obvious to those with whom he shared a set of beliefs. � Donghaile provides the most persuasive argument for seeing Wilde as a coherently progressive thinker and writer with an overarching political philosophy that informed almost everything he wrote.... this is a provocative and challenging reading of Wilde's writings that can be highly recommended--Jarlath Killeen of Trinity College, Dublin ""Irish University Review"" Carefully sifting archival sources, and radically rereading Wilde's work, from Vera, or The Nihilists to 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', � Donghaile recovers a much more radical figure than the one we think we know. In this thought-provoking study Wilde emerges as an anti-colonial and anarchist thinker who sees aesthetics and politics as intertwined.--Nicholas Daly, University College Dublin Deagl�n � Donghaile's Oscar Wilde and the Radical Politics of the Fin de Si�cle is a radical and insightful analysis of Oscar Wilde's political commitment as evidenced in a variety of his texts. The text goes a long way to answering that most vexatious of literary questions: 'Just what were Oscar Wilde's politics?'--Graham Price, Maynooth University ""Reading Ireland"""

Deaglán Ó Donghaile's well-researched monograph deftly tackles a field that lends itself to illuminating investigation. [...] [a] cogent exploration of a stratified discursive terrain makes it hard for anyone to still flirt with the idea that Wilde's aesthetic and individualist tenets might be just synonymous with social detachment or political escapism.--Laura Giovannelli ""Studi Irlandesi"" Through apt references to the cultural context and the judicious use of archival material, this monograph establishes Oscar Wilde as a prominent figure of nineteenth-century radicalism.--Di Luca Pinelli ""The Italian Oscar Wilde Society Newsletter"" Ó Donghaile... advances a case for Wilde's entire body of work as an expression of radical political thinking. Considering Wilde's liminal place in English history, exiting the Victorian era and pointing at the modernism to come, this argument represents a useful intervention into Wilde's place in the intellectual history of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland and England. The accessible prose and scrupulous research in this volume serve as a well from which those interested in Wilde's political beliefs can draw.--Brice Ezell, University of Texas ""Modernism/Modernity"" Ó Donghaile... incorporates pertinent analyses of Wilde's anarchist affiliations and also ranges knowledgeably across the spectrum of fin-de-siècle radicalism. In addition, Ó Donghaile repeatedly highlights Wilde's observations on Ireland, making his book an important contribution to the academic category of the Irish Wilde.--Richard Haslam ""Wildean (number 59, July 2021)"" ...in Oscar Wilde and the Radical Politics of the Fin de Siècle, Deaglán Ó Donghaile provides the most extensive re-reading yet of Wilde as consistently 'radical throughout his entire oeuvre', in which he is represented as (both openly and in coded form) expressing intellectual solidarity with a range of left-wing thinkers, activists and ideas. Ó Donghaile works his way through Wilde's life and work, moving from the American lecture tour at the start of his career to his prison writing, De Profundis (1905) and The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and provides provocative and stimulating analysis of an extensive range of material. I want to particularly single out the brilliant (and mostly convincing) reading of his early and very neglected (and, to my mind, underrated play) Vera, or The Nihilists (1883) as an anticolonial intervention into Irish land politics. One of the most impressive aspects of this book is the way in which Ó Donghaile connects Wilde to an extraordinary range of left-wing thinkers, arguing that even if Wilde has been much misunderstood politically, his ideological commitments were obvious to those with whom he shared a set of beliefs. Ó Donghaile provides the most persuasive argument for seeing Wilde as a coherently progressive thinker and writer with an overarching political philosophy that informed almost everything he wrote.... this is a provocative and challenging reading of Wilde's writings that can be highly recommended--Jarlath Killeen of Trinity College, Dublin ""Irish University Review"" Carefully sifting archival sources, and radically rereading Wilde's work, from Vera, or The Nihilists to 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', Ó Donghaile recovers a much more radical figure than the one we think we know. In this thought-provoking study Wilde emerges as an anti-colonial and anarchist thinker who sees aesthetics and politics as intertwined.--Nicholas Daly, University College Dublin Deaglán Ó Donghaile's Oscar Wilde and the Radical Politics of the Fin de Siécle is a radical and insightful analysis of Oscar Wilde's political commitment as evidenced in a variety of his texts. The text goes a long way to answering that most vexatious of literary questions: 'Just what were Oscar Wilde's politics?'--Graham Price, Maynooth University ""Reading Ireland""

Author Information

Deaglán Ó Donghaile is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool John Moores University. His first book, Blasted Literature: Victorian Political Fiction and the Shock of Modernism was published by EUP in 2011. His research focuses on the relationship between literature, political culture and violence in late nineteenth and early twentieth century writing.

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