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Polarities in the Works of Oscar Wilde
Burianová, Petra ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
Reading through the works of Oscar Wilde, one soon notices the many instances of polarity: the recurring themes of the body versus soul, good versus evil, city versus nature, artificial versus natural and many more. It is to be found in his plays as well as in his prose and fairy- tales. Yet these polarities do not necessarily have to oppose each other: the Wildean dialectic allows contraries to coexist, and thus we have the Star-Child who, through repentance, turns from evil to good; however this turn of character does not ensure a happy-ending, and makes us question whether "good really is good". A great number of Wilde's characters either live a double-life, have two distinct sides to their personality, or even several personalities, and in the case of Dorian Gray the split is literal. What led the author to constantly toy with this motif is a question worth examining. In Wilde's case, the artist's life cannot be entirely separated from his works since so much of what he was and what formed him is reflected in the texts he wrote. His statement that "what people call insincerity is simply a method by which we can multiply our personalities" (Ransome, 162) shows that for Wilde, truth was not the opposite of "lie", but there may have been several different versions of truth. His aesthetic views,...
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Polarities in the Works of Oscar Wilde
Burianová, Petra ; Wallace, Clare (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
Reading through the works of Oscar Wilde, one soon notices the many instances of polarity: the recurring themes of the body versus soul, good versus evil, city versus nature, artificial versus natural and many more. It is to be found in his plays as well as in his prose and fairy- tales. Yet these polarities do not necessarily have to oppose each other: the Wildean dialectic allows contraries to coexist, and thus we have the Star-Child who, through repentance, turns from evil to good; however this turn of character does not ensure a happy-ending, and makes us question whether "good really is good". A great number of Wilde's characters either live a double-life, have two distinct sides to their personality, or even several personalities, and in the case of Dorian Gray the split is literal. What led the author to constantly toy with this motif is a question worth examining. In Wilde's case, the artist's life cannot be entirely separated from his works since so much of what he was and what formed him is reflected in the texts he wrote. His statement that "what people call insincerity is simply a method by which we can multiply our personalities" (Ransome, 162) shows that for Wilde, truth was not the opposite of "lie", but there may have been several different versions of truth. His aesthetic views,...
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"Faces of the Victorian Double: Development of the Doppelganger in the British Literature of the Nineteenth Century"
Macura, Michal ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Wallace, Clare (referee)
English abstract To understand why the doppelgänger, or the phenomenon of double personality, developed such literary presence in the fin-de-siècle Victorian Britain we must look to the dramatic social changes which had taken place since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, as well as to the nascent science of psychology and its preoccupation with the subconscious in relation to consciousness. The doppelgänger typically emerges where one component of personality is suppressed due to supra-individual requirements and expectations. The doppelgänger is, therefore, closely linked to its environment. It is not so much a literary figure as an intense dialectical relationship between two sides of personality. The doppelgänger frequently constitutes a flight from the conscience, which in itself is a social construct. Both Dr Jekyll and Dorian Gray are fully conscious of the possibilities open to them through their alter egos - they may ignore the dictates of the public opinion as well as other institutions whose goal is effect a certain degree of conformity in society. The doppelgänger enables the subject to realise its unconscious ambitions. The doppelgänger may also be analysed in the context of the artist and their creation. Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, Basil Hallward and Dorian's portrait, leaving aside...
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Literary, cultural and historical influences in the works and beliefs of Oscar Wilde
Lorenzů, Alex ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Quinn, Justin (referee)
The thesis deals with the cultural and literary influences that can be traced in the works of Oscar Wilde. Its aim is to map out and elucidate some of the important motifs of the author's work and aesthetics in their own context as well as in the wider cultural-historical one. The methods used will be comparison of relevant materials, analysis of certain expressions typical of the author with their connotations, explaining the intertextual allusions in Wilde's work, and historical sources. The requisite attention will also be paid to Wilde as a representative of a subversive element of Victorian society and how this relates to his sexuality; that is to say, exploring the issue of the tabooing of non-heterosexuality, which may have been a decisive factor in Wilde's criticism of the conventions of his era and to his search of positive role-models in the ancient tradition both for his art and for his personal philosophy. Keywords Ancient Greece, ancient Rome, fin-de-siecle, homosexuality, intertextuality, l'art pour l'art, LGBTQ*, Marius the Epicurean, metatextuality, non-heterosexuality, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Victorian era, Walter Pater.
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