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English Literature | Vol. 9 | December 2022

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Research Article

“Into the Exquisitely Obscure”: Aestheticism and Fragmentation in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

Claudia Coimbra    University of Porto    

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abstract

This paper aims at tracing a link between early literary works, namely via French Décadence, the notion of Art for Art’s Sake and the trope of doubleness, concepts that intertwine both independent self-assertion and the defeat of Man by Nature as these come to be represented in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The dialogue between coeval aesthetical movements and the complexity of such an oeuvre unveils instances of undeniable influence; on the other hand, it also ascertains the uniqueness of Wilde’s provocative take on beauty and life.

Published
April 13, 2023
Accepted
Jan. 30, 2023
Submitted
Oct. 15, 2022
Language
EN

Keywords: Wilde • Decadence • evil • aestheticism • beauty

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2022/01/004

Copyright: © 2022 Claudia Coimbra. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.