An Electronic Journal for the Exchange of Information
on Current Research, Publications and Productions
concerning
Oscar
Wilde and His
Circles
Vol. II No. 4
Issue no. 11: April 2002
Go to Table
of Contents of this issue
Notice of the tenth (March) issue of THE
OSCHOLARS was transmitted to 568 readers. Since then, the
number of those registered as readers of the journal has risen
to 603 in thirty-five countries, the great majority in one or other of 236
universities or university colleges from King's,
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Plans continue for 'Staging Wilde', the first OSCHOLARS colloquium on Oscar Wilde, which will take place in Senate House, University of London, on Tuesday 25th June in collaboration with the Institute of English Studies www.sas.ac.uk/ies/conferences. The fee for the day will be £25.00, £15.00 concessions. Coffee/tea and biscuits will be provided, and lunch facilities are available in Senate House at the Macmillan Restaurant. We hope that the day will conclude with a reception. Numbers are limited to one hundred; all bookings up to 1st May will be at the concessionary rate. (Cheques, money orders should be made out to THE OSCHOLARS.) As the Colloquium is being widely promoted, we urge early booking. Speakers will be John H. Bartlett, author/actor of the Wilde play That Tiger Life, on staging Wilde as a one-man show; Patricia Flanagan Behrendt, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who will give a paper 'Neither On Nor Off, Nor In Nor Out: Upstaged Fathers in Plays by Wilde'; Yvonne Brewster, director of the Talawa Theatre Company, who will talk about her 1989 all-black production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest'; Robert Gordon, Reader in Drama and Head of the Drama
Department at Goldsmiths College, on the staging of the 'society plays' in Joel Kaplan, Professor of Drama and Head of the
Department of Drama and Theatre Arts, Xavier Leret, Director of the KAOS Theatre Company, on the KAOS production of "The Importance of being Earnest' Frederick Roden, Assistant Professor of English,
University of Robert Tanitch, author of Oscar Wilde On Stage and Screen (London: Methuen 1999). The full programme will be published in the May issue of THE OSCHOLARS and on the Conference website at http://www.sas.ac.uk/ies/conferences. |
As always, suggestions for improvements, additions and above all corrections, to THE OSCHOLARS are very welcome.
To help navigation: by clicking on any Green Carnation displayed
thus , you can go directly to
the Table of Contents. to the hub page 
; to THE OSCHOLARS
home page 
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The continued, welcome and somewhat unexpected, expansion
in readership places upon THE OSCHOLARS the obligation to increase its range
and coverage. Over the next months,
we will be identifying those areas and subjects in which we feel the need
to strengthen our outreach. We are
very pleased that Eva Thienpont of the
http://users.belgacom.net/wilde/start.html
We have long been aware that the section 'Some Sell and Others Buy' has been more than a little narcoleptic. We are the more pleased, therefore, to carry this month a selection of books from the current catalogue of R.A. Gekoski Ltd, and we thank Rick Gekoski and Peter Grogan for this.
This issue also sees the introduction of anew correspondence section. This will be viâ a link from our home page to a JISCmail page. JISCmail is the (British) National Academic Mailing List, the equivalent of the North American LISTSERV, and will function throughout the month. It operates in a way not dissimilar to Yahoo discussion groups, but is linked to other academic sites. It will only be accessible to readers of THE OSCHOLARS, who will be able to inaugurate their own discussions and controversies where these are germane to the purposes of THE OSCHOLARS. We will use it to announce news that arrives after our copydate, and we also hope it will serve in particular to keep student readers in touch with one another. It can also be accessed from within THE OSCHOLARS when printed as a link, thus: JISCmail.
Nothing in THE OSCHOLARS© is copyright to the Journal (although it may be to individual writers) unless indicated by ©,and the usual etiquette of attribution will doubtless be observed. Please feel free to download it, re-format it, print it, store it electronically whole or in part, copy and paste parts of it, and (of course) forward it to colleagues.
As usual, names emboldened in the text are those of subscribers to THE OSCHOLARS, who may be contacted through Melmoth@aliceadsl.fr. Underlined text in blue can be clicked for navigation through the document or to other addresses.
The Swedish translation of 'There is only one thing worse
than being talked about' has been kindly supplied by Irene Gilsenan-Nordin
of
The technical assistance of Dr John Phelps of
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Editor: D.C. Rose 1 rue Gutenberg |
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Assistant Editor for Eva Thienpont Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte Rijksuniversiteit Gent [Please only contact by e-mail in the first instance] |
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Click on any entry
for direct access |
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3. Film |
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5. Work in Progress. |
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6. Broadcasts. |
19. Victorian Gothic. |
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III. THE CRITIC AS CRITIC. |
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1. Wilde in Sydney. |
VI. NOTES AND QUERIES. |
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1. Obituary. |
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2. Naming Names. |
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IV. NEWS FROM ELSEWHERE. |
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1. Entertainment. |
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2. Exhibitions. |
6. Thomas Bell. |
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3. Talks and Visits. |
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4. Conferences. |
8. Eleonora Duse. |
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9. Arthur Symons. |
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15. Corrigendum. |
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VII. 'MAD, SCARLET MUSIC'. |
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1. England. |
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2. France. |
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3. Germany. |
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4. Russia. |
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5. Scotland. |
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IX. THE OTHER OSCAR. |
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X. WEB FOOT NOTES. |
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XII. A WILDE APRIL. |
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10. The representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, and transvestite. |
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11. Film (Open Topic). |
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I. GUIDANCE FOR SUBMISSIONS
Publication is on the last day of each month (or if this is not possible, the first day of the next); copydate is not later than the 25th.
Please specify if you wish your e-mail address to be included.
Work in Progress: Please give the provisional title, status (e.g. article, book, M.A. Dissertation, Ph.D. thesis etc.) and where appropriate your university affiliation.
Publications: Full title, publisher, place and date of publication as usual, ISBN if possible.
Notices: If you are kindly submitting notices of events, such as conferences, productions, broadcasts or lectures, please include as many details as you can: venue, date, time, and contact addressif possible or relevant.
Notes & Queries: Please keep these reasonably short, and use the section 'And I? May I say nothing?' for longer pieces.
II. NEWS FROM SUBSCRIBERS
1. Publications and Papers
Hillary O'Macke ('Independent Scholar, and Dragon at the Gate of "Hopkins World"') draws our attention to the Gerard Manley Hopkins website http://gmhworld.topcities.com/
v
We would both be interested in
hearing about anybody who is working on
Meri-Jane Rochelson (Florida International University) reviews Amy Levy: Her Life and Letters by Linda Hunt Beckman in Victorians Institute Journal volume 29 (2001). A letter from Oscar Wilde to Amy Levy is in Holland & Hart Davis, p.326
Frederick S. Roden (
Margaret Stetz (Georgetown University, and currently a full time visiting faculty member in the Women's Studies Program at the University of Delaware for Spring & Fall 2002), writes
Two recent publications by me are:
'The New Woman and the British Periodical Press of the 1890s' in the Journal of Victorian Culture, 6.2. Autumn 2001 issue, pp.272-285 [includes a discussion of Wilde's editorship of Woman's World]; and
Review of James G. Nelson's
book, Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of
Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson in Nineteenth-Century Literature,
56.
Eibhear Walshe (National
___________________
Andreas Hüther (
An incomplete
bibliography of German language publications regarding Oscar Wilde,
Ahn, Bang-Soon, Dekadenz in der Dichtung des Fin de siècle (Göttingen University Dissertation 1996 and Göttingen, Cuvillier-Verlag, 1996).
Belford, Barbara, Oscar Wilde, ein paradoxes Genie: eine Biographie (trans. by Susanne Luber, Zürich, Haffmans, 2000).
Brittnacher, Hans Richard, '"Der Geck wartragisch": Hoffmannsthal Nachruf auf Oscar Wilde', in Forum Homosexualität und Literatur 26 (1996), pp. 27-41.
Detering, Heinz, '"Der Literat als Abenteurer”" Tonio Kröger zwischen Dorian Gray und der Tod in Venedig’, Forum Homosexualität und Literatur 14 (1992), pp. 5-22.
Ellmann,
Richard, Oscar Wilde (trans. by Hans Wolf,
Funke, Peter (ed.), Oscar
Wilde: mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten (16th edition,
Reinbek bei
Gentz,
Gerigk, Horst-Jürgen, 'Literarische Vergänglichkeit: Notizen zu Oscar Wildes Bildnis des Dorian Gray und Hugo von Hofmannsthals Rosenkavalier mit Rücksicht auf Johann Peter Hebels Unverhofftes Wiedersehen' in Kapp, Volker; Kiesel, Helmut and Lubbers, Klaus (eds.), Bilderwelten als Vergegenwärtigung und Verrätselungder Welt: Literatur und Kunst um die Jahrhundertwende (Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 1997), pp.139-144.
Hänsel-Hohenhausen,
Markus, Diefrühe deutschsprchige Oscar-Wilde-Rezeption,
Hermes, Beate, Felix Paul Greve als Übersetzer von Gide und Wilde: eine Unter-suchung zum Übersetzerstil (Frankfurt/Main et al., P. Lang, Neue Studien zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik vol. 71, 1997).
Hess-Lüttich, Ernest W.B., 'Dandy, Camp und Fin du Globe. Wildes Inversion viktorianischer Werte', Forum Homosexualität und Literatur 26 (1996), pp. 43-69.
Juranek, Christian (ed.), Die
Erfindungdes Schönen: Oscar Wilde und das
Klee, Wanda G., Leibhaftige
Dekadenz: Studien zur Körperlichkeit in ausgewählten Werken von Joris-Karl
Huysmans und Oscar Wilde (
Kohl, Norbert (ed.), Oscar Wilde im Spiegel des Jahrhunderts: Erinnerungen, Kommentare, Bedeutungen (Frankfurt/Main & Leipzig, Insel, 2000).
Kohl, Norbert, Oscar Wilde (Frankfurt/Main & Leipzig, Insel, 2000).
Kohlmayer, Rainer, 'Sprachkomikbei Wilde und bei seinen deutschen Übersetzern: Normalisierung, Konfliktdämpfungund Selbstzensur in den frühen Komödienüber-setzungen' in Fritz, Paul; Ranke, Wolfgang; und Schultze, Brigitte (eds.), Europäische Komödie im übersetzerischen Transfer (Tübingen, Narr, 1993), pp.345-384.
Kohlmayer, Rainer, 'Übersetzungals ideologische Anpassung: Oscar Wildes Gesellschaftskomödien mit nationalsozialistischer Botschaft' in Snell-Hornby, Mary; Pöchhacker, Franz and Kaindl, Klaus (eds.), Translation Studies: An Interdiscipline (Amsterdam, Benjamins, 1994), pp.91-101.
Kohlmayer, Rainer, Oscar Wildein Deutschland und Österreich: Untersuchungen zur Rezeption derKomödien und zur Theorie der Bühnenübersetzung (Tübingen, Max Niemeyer, Theatron vol. 20, 1996).
Krämer, Gernot, "Der Mord als eine schöne Kunst betrachtet": zur ästhetischen Valenz eines Motivs bei Thomas de Quincy, Oscar Wilde und Marcel Schwob (Bielefeld, Aisthesis, 1999).
Pesch, Josef W., Wilde, about Joyce:zur Umsetzung ästhetizistischer Kunsttheorie in der literarischen Praxis der Moderne (Frankfurt/Main, P. Lang, Münsteraner Monographienzur englischen Literatur, vol. 8, 1992).
Rademacher, Jörg, Oscar Wilde(München, dtv, 2000).
Rosteck, Jens, Die Sphinx
verstummt: OscarWilde in Paris (
Wilde, Oscar, Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray: der unzensierte Wortlaut des Skandal-romans (edited and trans. by Jörg W. Rademacher, Frankfurt/Main, Eichborn, 2000).
Wintermans, Caspar, Lord
Alfred Douglas,ein Leben im Schatten von Oscar
Wilde (trans. from Dutch by Christiane Kuby,
Zelter, Joachim, Sinnhafte Fiktion und Wahrheit: Untersuchungen zur ästhetischen und epistemologischen Problematikdes Fiktionsbegriffs im Kontext europäischer Ideen- und englischer Literaturgeschichte (Tübingen, Max Niemeyer, Studien zur englischen Philologie vol. 32, 1994).
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We will slip in here two other bibliographical notes, as we have notspotted them in other bibliographies:
David Lodge: 'Oscar Wilde:
"The Ballad of Reading Gaol"", in David Lodge: The Modes of
Modern Writing, Metaphor, Metonymy, and the Typology of Modern Literature.
David Punter: 'Gothic and
Decadence: Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker,
Arthur Machen'.
This is Chapter One in David Punter: The Literature of Terror, A
history of Gothic Fictions from 1765 to the present day. Volume II: The Modern Gothic.
2. The Oscar Wilde Societies
The inaugural celebration of the new Oscar Wilde Society
of America, founded by Marilyn Bisch and Joan Navarre, was
held in
Marilyn Bisch writes
The Oscar Wilde Society of
America held its Inaugural Celebration in
Many thanks to all who made this a wonderful celebration either by attending or by sending greetings. You were all there either in person or in spirit. And it was a most festive occasion.
Wilde scholars will, we believe
from our experience, find a very warm welcome in
The Center for Irish Studies at
The
On 16 March members of the
society marched in the annual St Patrick's Day Parade through downtown
The programme consisted of a day long poster exhibition in the Archbishop Ireland Room of the Saint Paul Hotel, participation of society members and supporters in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade and, during the afternoon, a talk by Professor Andrew Elfenbein (University of Minnesota) on 'Oscar Wilde: Shame and Beauty'. There was also an address by the well-known poet James Liddy,who has been made Poet Laureate of the Oscar Wilde Society of America. Proceedings concluded with a reading of The Selfish Giant and The Remarkable Rocket by The Red Cedar Dramatic Company.
Anyone interested in the new American society may contact us via our web page
http://www.indstate.edu/humanities/owsoa.htm or by post to
Marilyn Bisch, President of the OWSOA, Department of
Humanities, Indiana State University, Terre Haute IN
The other officers of the Society are
Joan Navarre, Vice President; e-mail jnavarre@hotmail.com
Richard Freed, Treasurer; English Department; Case Annex 488;
John B Thomas III, Secretary;
Donald Mead (Oscar Wilde
Society,
3rd to 5th
May: Weekend in
20th July:
Lunch at
A new edition of Intentions will be published in April.
Project Oscar Wilde announce their
Oscar Wilde
Festival -
Tickets are now on
sale for the OSCAR WILDE WEEKEND FESTIVAL
in Enniskillen,
The Festival, which
runs from 31st May to 2nd June, is a celebrationof the seven years Oscar Wilde
spent at
On the Friday evening (31st May) Guest Speaker at The Oscar Wilde Festival Dinner in the Killyhevlin Hotel is Senator David Norris who will give an address entitiled, 'The Green Carnation and The Queer Nation - Oscar Wilde Reclaimed.' (Tickets for the evening which begins with a sherry reception, hosted by the Oscar Wilde Society, are £25)
Saturday 1st June
offers a full day's programme, starting at
After a morning of literary discourse, the festival visitor will bein need of some refreshment and the award-winning Oscar’s Restaurant in Enniskillen is offering a special four-course lunch at £12 per head (bookings in advance only through Oscar's Restaurant).
At
At
The evening is
rounded off by a Festival Gala Evening at the ArdhowenTheatre when patrons are
invited to enter into the fun of the occasion by dressing up in
Victorian/formal attire in honour of Oscar Wilde, the quintessential
Sunday 2nd June sees
a return to
Aside from the main
programme, the Festival will also include exhibitions, music sessions, town
tours and a cruise of the lakelands.
Exhibitions include 'The Selfish Giant and the Flower Garden',
Festival 'Craic' features a series of Jazz and Blues performances at Blake's of The Hollow, 'Live' music at The Horseshoe Bar and Wilde Nights at The Crow’s Nest. Plus live music in the Diamond each afternoon, face-paintinng and balloon modelling, Wildean quotations and Victoriandisplays.
Ticket bookings can
be made by post to Project Oscar Wilde on completion of the Brochure Postal
Booking Form. To obtain your Brochure
telephone: Project Oscar Wilde 028 686
Thursday’s launch date also sees the publication of three new workson Oscar Wilde, by Project Oscar Wilde Chairperson, Heather White. Forgotten Schooldays - an account of Oscar's sojourn in Enniskillen which reveals new and unpublished information relating to this period of his life; Wildefire - an investigation into the shadowy lives of Oscar’s two half-sisters who were burnt to death in a crinoline fire in County Monaghan; and A Wilde Family, a short account of Oscar Wilde’s Dublin family which had more than its fair share of intrigue, scandal and tragedy.
For further
information, contact: Heather White, Project Oscar Wilde. Tel: 028 686
Note: The telephone numbers are
3. Film
The Importance of being Earnest
Karen Rosenberg writes 'I have updated my site with the publicity stills, a link to the trailer and numerous screen captures from that trailer. As my site has been regularly pillaged by other websites, I've instituted certain new controls to prevent downloading.
'You may find this either amusing or sad (I subscribe to the latter) that the official publicity information from Miramax continually refers to the two characters as assuming the name Earnest instead of Ernest.
http://www.miramax.com/importanceofbeingernest/index.html
'One wonders how Miramax can publicize a film it so obviously does notunderstand. Plus Gwendolen's name is misspelled as well. [As indeed is Algernon's, as MonTcrieff - Ed.]
'Finally, I have added a link to your OSCHOLARS site on my page. I will be extremely interested in reading how your group reacts to the film.'
We are especially grateful to Ms Rosenberg for this last point, and we remind readers that the new JISCmail correspondence pages are now open. Her website is http://www.spring.net/karenr/mdbro/earnest.html
4. Wilde on the Curriculum
Irene Gilsenan-Nordin (University College, Dalarna, Sweden), writes à propos 'being talked about', 'My colleague Tore Nilsson in linguistics thought it was a good example of the use of passive so he used the sentence as a practical example in his translation class.' For the translation, click here.
5. Work in Progress
Becky Chaplain (
Tine Englebert (
The section "Mad, scarlet music" looks very interesting to me. I would like to come in touch with other researchers interested in musical adaptationsof the work of Wilde.
Tine Englebert, Posthoornstraat 3, B-9050
6. Broadcasts
We know of no broadcasts by subscribers in April. Trevor Fisher has kindly pointed out
that Spendthrift of Genius, the documentary on Wilde by Sean O Mordha,
originally made for RTÉ, was televised in
III. THE CRITIC AS CRITIC.
We hope to carry at least one review in each issue.
1. Wilde in Sydney
Penny Gay
Review of Gross Indecency: The Three Trialsof Oscar Wilde, by Moises Kaufman; and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (a prison fantasy, concept by Barry Lowe)
New Theatre,
Sydney's venerable left-wing theatre, the New (founded in 1932), hosted this pair of plays for the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, a massive annual cultural festival that culminates in a Saturday-night parade of floats and marching groups, and the world's biggest gay party. 'The love that dare not speak its name' now contributes a not inconsiderable slice to the city's tourist income, and a great deal of cachet to the imageof this ex-convict settlement as a sophisticated world centre. Wilde's wit and high campery find a ready echo in Australians' penchant for irony and their particular delight in deconstructing gender cliches through the theatricality of cross-dressing, which sometimes seems almost a national pastime.
Notwithstanding this relatively long and proud history of gay liberation, it was particularly poignant to be watching Gross Indecency in the week following an attack by a Government bull-terrier (the Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary) on a highly esteemed HighCourt Justice, Michael Kirby, who is open about his homosexuality. The MP, Bill Heffernan,using parliamentary privilege, read into the record an extraordinary farrago about Justice Kirby's alleged use of Commonwealth cars to pick up rent boys. Within days, the driver's log-sheet, which had been adduced as the main piece of evidence, had been shown to be an egregious forgery. Heffernan was obliged to apologiseto Kirby and to the Parliament; and his friend the Prime Minister was obliged to sack his slavering mastiff. Kirby was graciousness itself in accepting the apology, but spoke feelingly ofthe depths of homophobia in conservative circles that the incident betrayed (it had been front-page headline news all around the country for the previous four days). Sitting in the theatre two days after the apology, watching Kaufman's masterly dramatisation of Wilde's three trials, one couldn't but think, what if the forgery hadn't been uncovered? what if the other 'evidence', the statutory declaration of an ex-rent boy, had not already been discreditedin another case involving a high-profile gay lawyer?
Wilde, as we know, willingly became a martyr for a cause whose time had come, refusing to leave the country when the opportunity was offered him, displaying his own style of graciousnessin the face of scurrility. But as the memoirs which Kaufman uses also indicate, he did lie about the extent of his physical involvementwith the young men he loved. Kaufman's takeon this is to show how relatively unimportant to Wilde physical sex was, compared with the emotional and aesthetic dynamics of the relationships.
Anthony Hunt made a wonderfully impressive Oscar, tall and elegant, and perfectly at home with Wilde's coruscating eloquence and beautifully-timed bons mots. Others in the eleven-man cast performed with panache the many rolesthey were allotted. Particularly impressive were Peter Flett and John Grinston as the two opposing barristers, Edward Carson and Sir Edward Clarke, and David Scott, who among other roles gave a hilarious parody of a modern academic commenting on Wilde's trials as the Foucauldian moment of epistemic change when the word 'homosexual' assumed its meaning. Simon Stollery played a mincing Lord Alfred Douglas, and his father the lunatic Marquess of Queensberry was played with great energy by John Farndale - who looked disconcertingly like a miniature George Bernard Shaw, complete with whiskers and knickerbockers (whereas the actor playingthe small part of Shaw neither looked nor sounded like him).
Employing the same cast, Barry Lowe's 'framing' of an all-male production of Earnest as a show put on in Reading Gaol by the prisoners to cheer up a depressed and ill Oscar, had lost something of this concept by the time I saw it. Nevertheless it remained an interesting and undoubtedly viable idea. The set, designed by Alice Lau, wa sthe same as for Gross Indecency: a large stage, empty except for piles of old law books in sculptural shapes, and a couple of benches: a far cry from the country-house whimsy that usually accompanies productionsof this play. Before Earnest begins, the prisoners shuffle round this space as though in an exercise yard, and Wilde collapses as he speaks his humiliating petition for early release. The production of his play, however, which he watches from the side of the stage, reviveshim, and at the end he delays the delivery of the play's final line so that he can make his own Justice Kirby-like plea for tolerance.
Earnest was played in its four-act version, which made for a long evening, but including the debt-collector scene certainly brought home the resonances with Wilde's own life. Members of the cast playing the female roles were variously comfortable in drag: Simon Stollery was a glorious study in upper-class bitchery as Gwendolen, very much her mother's daughter. Peter Flett made a game try at Lady Bracknell, but it's a drag queen's role, and the director's decision not to allow the actors the assistance of wigs meant that John Grinston similarly was hampered by his balding head in what was otherwise a very nicely-turned Miss Prism. Michael Lynch was simply miscast as Cecily, though one imagines that in this very miscasting we were being reminded of the 'prison fantasy'. A better casting would have been the petit and mercurial Brett Hicks-Maitland, who in the event made a charming Algernon. The show's star was undoubtedly the versatile and extraordinarily mobile David Scott who mugged his way through the classic farce of John Worthing's story. A charismatic comic actor, and one to watch.
Both plays were directed by Elaine Hudson, who kept the large cast fizzing along, so that the overheatedverbosity that one sometimes associates with Wilde never produced the impressionof time dragging. The juxtaposition of the two plays was a compelling reminderof the tragic paradox of this master comedian's life.
v
Penny Gay is Associate Professor
of English and Head of Department,
2. LoveThat Dare Not Speak Its Name in Ghent
Eva Thienpont
De Profundis presents 'Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name' A Tribute to OscarWilde.
'Love is what it'sall about, isn't it? Love of men, love of women, love of the impossible…' - love of Wilde. Tim Bellens started to read the works of Oscar Wilde after having seen BrianGilbert's biopic Wilde. He was struck by the fact that many things Wilde wrote more than one hundred years ago haven't lost a bit of their relevance today. In a country where directors are reluctant to stage Wilde because they think his work 'old-fashioned', Bellens has made it his quest to convince audiences otherwise.
Bellens' antidotes against the dusty reputation of the nineteenth century are music and decontextualisation. Himself a songwriter, Bellens has selected fragments from the Complete Works and put them to music. These fragments are not just the obvious poems - Endymion and the first part of The Ballad of Reading Gaol - but also extracts from The Picture of Dorian Gray and several plays. Bellens has decontextualised the excerpts by removing characters' names and references to them, and has turned them into Gavin Friday-style modern pop songs thatwork surprisingly well.
Salomé's monologue from the end of the play inspires two chilling evocations of unrequited love. Gertrude Chiltern's disappointment with her husband ('Don't come near me. Don't touch me. I feel as if you had soiled me forever'…) is turnedinto in a very lively and spirited song of lost love which can easily be imagined as a radio hit. 'The Girl' is a sweet and sensitive ballad based on the description of Sybil Vane from The Picture of Dorian Gray ('A rose shook in her blood and shadowed her cheeks. A quick breath parted the petals of her lips'…). 'Believe', after Mrs Erlynne's description ofher life and shame, is probably the most powerful song. Accompanied by her brother's piano and Frederik Caelen's accordeon, Wen Bellens'excellent voice and stage presence result in a soulful and passionate rendering of Wilde's texts.
Tim Bellens performs some of the songs himself. His voice is tender in the overtly homoerotic 'Endymion' and becomes languid and seductive in 'Talking to him', Lord Henry Wotton's reflections on Dorian Gray. 'It's all Wrong', based on Hester Worsley's diatribe against the decadent aristocrats of Hunstanton Chase in A Woman of No Importance, gives us an idea ofwhat a Wildean social protest song could be like. Lord Darlington's declarationof love to Lady Windermere ('If I know you at all I know that you can't live with a man who treats you like this'…) is parodied as 'Yes, I LoveYou', a Top Ten pastiche complete with idiotically dancing backing vocalists and only lacking an MTV video clip.
The songs are embedded in a theatre text that alternates between monologue and dialogue. De Profundishave created a new production assembled from snatches of such diverse textsas The Young King, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Pictureof Dorian Gray, De Profundis, the society comedies and essays from Intentions. Admirable is the fact that 'Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name' is not afraid of confronting the audience with the more subtle and complicated aspects of Wilde, and bravely includes pieces of pure philosophy -- discussions about body and soul, reflexive passages from Dorian Gray -- together with more easily digestible fragments from An Ideal Husband and A Woman of No Importance. In this production there is no place for Wilde's intensely comical scenes. The text focuses on the two major themes of Love and Society, and one feels that the primary aim is to invite reflection rather than laughter.
The challenge of such an enterprise as the one undertaken by De Profundis is to make a coherent whole out of all the bits and pieces of text. They do well, and some transitions really hit the mark. So, for example, a fragment from The Nightingale and the Rose linking Eros and Thanatos is followed by a song with the powerful climax of Salomé: 'The mystery of love is greater than the mysteryof death.' But definitely the best and most effective sequence is a recitation of a heart-breaking and painfully genuine De Profundis excerpt in which Wilde sketches his own digression from Society's norms and its results, combined with a song based on Mrs Erlynne's speech to Lady Windermere that starts, 'Believe what you want about me. I'm not worth a moment's sorrow.' In these fragments the performance's two main themes are finally united.
Do De Profundis reach their aim of rejuvenating Oscar Wilde for Belgian audiences? This is hard to say. Those among the public who have already been converted to the High Cult of Infamous Saint Oscar don't need convincing that the Master's writings are relevant and sparkling with life - they know, and can appreciate the wit and wisdom even without music. And it is to be feared that 'Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name' might be just a little bit too deep-digging, too reflexive to appeal to the regular Philistine leading a miserable Wilde-less life. Unfortunately, the Philistines are a large majority among the Belgian population, so that De Profundis more than once perform with a cast larger than the audience and arts centres are reluctant to give them a stage. But 'Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name' is dainty, charming, and to connoisseurs delightful as Belgian chocolate. Its lack of acclaim only shows that the public need cultivating. Nihil novum sub sole.
v
Eva Thienpont is Assistant Editor of THE OSCHOLARS (
De Profundis are
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Speakers: |
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|
Elise
De Vliegher Mieke
Laureys Marc
Stroobants Tom de Hoog Tom Vreriks |
Wen Bellens Tim Bellens |
Piano: Tim Bellens Accordeon: Frederik Caelens Music: Tim Bellens Translation: Rudi Meulemans (The translation was written especially for this production) |
3. Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride in Exeter
Regenia Gagnier
Gilbert and Sullivan have been
on my mind. I recently reviewed DennisDenisoff's
Æstheticism and Sexual Parody
The six-year-old loved the 35th Dragoon Guards--the so-called 'Heavy Dragoon' opposed to 'Light Infantry' (led by Matthew Clemence and Richard Cameron). These sabre-rattling hyper-masculine 'military men' have been shamed by 'the literary man' Bunthorne (Peter Reynolds, also the President of the G&S Society), who has captured the hearts of their girl friends (led by Caroline Howard, Johanna Jarvinen, and Maria Gay). WhileBunthorne is 'an insult to British uniforms,' the six-year-old identified with the uniforms' primary colours, virile voices, and big swords.
The ten-year-old identified with Archibald Grosvenor (Alex Rivett), Bunthorne's rival poet and the milkmaid Patience's childhood sweetheart, whom Patience must love and give up according to the altruistic code of the play: everyboy's dream to be desired by all but touched bynone. He also liked Bunthorne and the Duke (Elliot Sherwood-Roberts) who, though he is worth £1000 a day, joined the 35th to be a regular guy (continuing the theme of altruism).
My partner and I liked the women, the Chorus of Maidens, who had tripped off a Burne-Jones staircase and trailed after the poets singingtheir collectively unrequited 'Ah misery.' My sons' preferences notwithstanding, the girls were delightful - nothing so lovely as the pastel Pre-Raph undergraduates emoting 'Twenty love-sick maidens we,' 'Let the merry cymbals sound,' and 'On such eyes as maidens cherish'. High points were Katherine Jackson belting out her lament for the fading of female Beauty ('Sadis that woman's lot') that begins Act II, and Patience (Ruth Irons) the Dairy Maid's lovely voice as she struggles brightly withthe antinomies of interested versus disinterested love.
Patience was the first true Savoy Opera, as it opened the Savoy Theatre on
Denisoff thought that the target of Patiencewas marriage and romantic love, yet they all marry in the end: the 35th and the Maidens, Lady Jane and the Duke, the childhood sweethearts Archibald and Patience. Only Bunthorne has no bride but must be patient, contentwith 'a heart of sympathy, a tulip, a lily.' Everyone, that is, receives recognition in partnership except the æsthete, who has confided tothe audience from his first 'Am I alone and unobserved' that all he wants is 'admiration,' acknowledgement by Others. In 1913, Holbrook Jackson characterized the fin de siècle correctly as primarily concerned with the 'most effective, most powerful, most righteous mode of living' (The Eighteen-Nineties). The operetta is in fact about the constitutionof the self through acknowledgement by the other, from the Duke who wants to be a regular guy, to the selfless collectivity of the adoring Maidens, the loyal Jane, the children Patience and Archibald who never forgot their childhood affections, and the celebrity Bunthorne/Wilde, who only lived when in front of an audience.
This theme of self and other
was fitting from one of the great collaborationsof the nineteenth century,
producing fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896. The librettist satirized everything from the
British legal system, to the Navy, to the House of Lords and women's emancipation.
The composer spoofed everything from minstrelsy to Handel--while securing
an immortality of sorts with 'The Lost Chord' and the tune for 'Onward, Christian
Soldiers.' The music died only when the partnership dissolved
in legal disputes over carpets and what-not repairs to the
But once there was a chorus of
people singing for recognition and dressing up to attract each other. We can thank
v
Regenia Gagner is Professor of English at the
4. Knox on Wilde
Melissa Knox: Oscar Wilde
in the 1990s: The Critic as Creator (
Adrian Frazier
Seven years after the publication of Oscar Wilde: A Long and Lovely Suicide, Melissa Knox has brought out another book on Wilde, or, rather, on writing about Wilde published in the last decade. The book is part of Camden House's 'Literary Criticism in Perspective' series, which aims to 'gauge the influence of social and historic currents on aesthetic judgments once thought objective'. So the premise of the series is that criticism is principally subjective and relative. In line with this agenda, Knox often refers to Wilde's The Critic as Artist to reinforce the idea that the critic expresses, mainly, the critic’s own personality; and the real aim of criticism, contra Matthew Arnold, is to say what the work is not. In her own case, she makes an exception in this general truth that there is no truth. The arguments of A Long and Lovely Suicide are often repeated in this book, then summarized uncritically once more at its end. Many other Wilde scholars of the 1990s are found wanting.
Actually, Knox does not
end the book by summarizing Knox. There
is a parting section on Merlin Holland, Wilde'sgrandson. He is treated very severely indeed. The difficulty is plain. Her theory is that the mystery of Wilde's
motivation has a key. The key is to
be found in Ellmann’s biography: Wilde had syphilis, or at least
thought he did. Merlin Holland, like
his father, regards as unproven and unlikely that the first time he had sex, Wilde caught syphilis from an
I suppose I wouldn’t like it either if scholars delightedly argued my father died of the clap or AIDS, probably gave it to my mother, maybe even to me, and showed a complete moral abandonment in all his mortally risky sexual dealings with those he loved, male or female. As their editor, Holland knows Wilde's letters better than anyone, now that Rupert Hart-Davis is dead, and it must strike him as telling that these letters express so many sides of his grandfather’s life and personality, yet provide no evidence of V.D., much less an obsession with it.
Of course, no one who has slept with anyone escapes some thought of possible contamination. Nietzsche, Flaubert, Manet, Maupassant, Huysmans—they all had syphilis. No doubt the fear of infection crossed Wilde's mind. But can one explain all the works of all the aforementioned writers, explain, in short, late 19th century European literature, primarily by reference to this disease?
Many other theories about Wilde's work are briefly digested inthis book, and their mistakes identified. Knox categorizes1990s writing about Wilde into six groups:
1.
Geistesgeschichte (Close
2. New Historicism,
3. Gay, Queer, and Gender Criticism,
4. Reader Response Criticism,
5. Irish Ethnic Studies and Cultural Criticism, and
6. Biographic Studies.
Knox's personal preference—and all criticism, she advises, is personal preference—is 'Biographic Studies', though of five writers summarized—John Stokes, Masolino D’Amico, Norman Page, Kerry Powell, Denis Donoghue, and Melissa Knox herself—only two get off scot-free, Powell and, you guessed it, Melissa Knox.
The other category of criticism that wins praise is 'Irish Ethnic Studiesand Cultural Criticism.' Jerusha McCormack, rom University College Dublin, gets a proper mead of approval. Ye I am not sure that those identified with Irish Studies—Declan Kiberd, for instance—think of themselves as studying 'ethnicity'. Irish Studies is 'Ethnic Studies' only within the imperial framework within which Irish people are a minority, and Americans or Englishmen are non-ethnic. Nonetheless, Irish scholars are more likely to know facts about Wilde's class, family, educational, and personal background, especially devotees like Davis Coakley, and Knox respects their knowledge. So do I. Knowledge is worthy of respect. It is not altogether subjective.
Queer critics get a rough time. Ed Cohen is found to be too full of jargon. And I agree that he is, while also thinking his writing is brilliant, original, and heartfelt. Alan Sinfield is taken down a peg or two, in spite of always writing with first-rate intelligence (not mentioned in this book). Knox doubts Sinfield's claim that therewas something new about the effeminate, campy style of homosexual when Wilde became its paragon. My own take is that Foucault introduced a critical fashion for identifying moments of sudden beginning of ways of being human. These historical watersheds are improbably singular and precise. To a degree, Sinfield may have fallen victim to this rhetorical practice, but it is also the case that, rhetoric apart, he identifies an interesting transition in social styles of being a man who loves men, and shows the incredible power for like-minded individuals of Wilde's example, in its beauty, bravery, and victimage.
Perhaps Knox needs to psychoanalyse her own personal responses to the inner-truth claims of people who are male homosexuals themselves. Is it possible that 'denial' is playing games with her judgment? She seems afraid of their authority over a subject in which she herself claims authority. And naturally they don't like the outmoded psychoanalytic theory that homosexuality is capable of explanation, that it is caused by early experiences. The implication is with good therapy you wouldn't be what you are. Knox is too smart and too liberal to speak of homosexuality as an illness, but she does not seem aware of the implications of her psychoanalytic and diagnostic approach. It is surprising as well that a scholar could be so fully committed to the Freudian concept of the unconscious that she would insist, again and again, that all other scholars must accept this concept and employ it in their work. For the last fifty years, scholars and practitioners of psychology and psychiatry have debunked simple Freudianism as unscientific. Only the occasional literary critic still applies Freud the way Russians applied Marx under Stalin: piously, rigorously, unreflectingly.
In general, I don’t think that a scholar of Melissa Knox's quality should have agreed to write a book of this sort. It shows signs of having been hastily written, and, indeed, haste is all such a formulaic book deserves. The sentences are not all well shaped. The pace is slow. The idea that Wilde, whatever he said, is to be admired and followed, is unscholarly; not even Merlin Holland shows, in her view, a satisfactory degree of idolatry of Wilde. Would Yale University Press, her first publisher, have published this book?
Oscar Wilde in the 1990s is unpleasantly judgmental. By definition, I suppose it had to be so. Both honesty and the standardsof objective scholarly review required criticism of criticism, just asthis book review requires a criticism of criticism of criticisms. Alas, I wish I could be nicer. Those among the thirty-seven scholars whom I haven't already mentioned, please forgive me (it's too much to ask Melissa Knox to do so). To summarize further a book that summarizes other books would be to perpetrate an endless hell of summary.
v
Adrian Frazier is Director, MA in Drama
and Theatre Arts, English Department, National University of Ireland,
â Melissa Knox's riposte is printed below in 'And I? May I Say Nothing'?
IV. NEWS FROM ELSEWHERE.
1. Entertainment.
Oscar Wilde in
On 15th April there is an evening of Victorian Voices as partof the Cheltenham Festival. 'From Henry James, George Eliot and Alfred Tennyson to Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens, leading actors Gabriel Woolf and Rosalind Shanks bring their writing to life.' www.cheltenhamfestivals.co.uk
Dorian Gray at the British Library, 14th April
This event, a concert performance of a new musical of The
Pictureof Dorian Gray by Rupert Holmes, has beencancelled. The score for part two was not complete and
there was no guaranteethat the score would be finished in time. Apparently the score-writer had committed himself to another project.
2. Exhibitions
'Exposed: The Victorian Nude' runs to 2nd June at the Haus
der Kunst,
'Love & Death: Art in the Age of Queen
Impressionists
Until 14th April, the National Gallery of Ireland
is celebratingthe opening of its new Millennium Wing with an exhibition 'Monet,
Renoir and the Impressionist Landscape'. Visitors
will have a unique opportunity to see 69 masterpieces drawn from the great
collection of the
'Van Gogh & Gauguin' is the new exhibition at the
The Kelmscott Press at Bryn Mawr
William Morris established the Kelmscott Press in the 1880s as a reaction against the poor quality of late 19th century printing, and to set a standard for quality in layoutand design, materials and technique. This exhibition draws upon Bryn Mawr's extensive collection of Kelmscott Press books to explore the history of the Kelmscott Press in the context of Victorian England. It will also examine the procedures and techniques of "building" a Kelmscott Press book, from woodcuts by Edward Burne-Jones and the developmentof Morris's decorative letters, to the physical layout of the book itself.
The exhibition is mounted in the Class of 1912 Rare Book
Room, Mariam Coffin Canaday Library,
3. Talks and Visits
The Sidney D. Gamble Lecture series for
Tuesday 9th April
Reservations in advance are recommended, as space is limited.
For more information, please contact the Gamble House directly
Saturday 20th April,
This talk, by Libby Horner, will refer to Frank Brangwyn's brief employment as a youth with Morris & Co. and the influence he received from it. Brangwyn also lived in Hammersmith from 1900 to 1935. Libby Horner has co-authored a book on St Augustine's Church, Ramsgate (A.W.N. Pugin's own church) and has had various articles about Frank Brangwyn published in magazines. She is currently preparing a catalogue raisonné of his works.
At Kelmscott House; tickets £3 for William Morris Society members, £4 for non-members. Address all applications for tickets to Judy Marsden, The William Morris Society, Kelmscott House, 26 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, London W6 9TA, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope.
Sunday 21st April
Victorian Society events for April. Please check withthe Society for availability of places.
The Victorian Society, 1
(If you write and would like a reply, please include a stamped, addressedenvelope.)
Saturday 6th April
Another chance to visit Mewès
& Davis’s
Saturday 13th April
Woodyer is one of the undeservingly-ignored
giants of the gothic revival. Our leader is John Sims who is one of the authors
of an impressive new book about Woodyer and his often extraordinary buildings.
We start with a guided tour of
Saturday 20th April
Special tour for readers of BBC Homes and Antiques Magazine. Sold out.
Saturday 20 April
Guided tour
of Bazalgette and Cooper's matchless 'cathedral in cas tiron' of
Wednesday 1st May
An introductory talk and a tour of the new home of the De Morgan Foundation collection, the former West Hill Reference Library, Wandsworth. See William De Morgan's remarkable Islamic-inspired lustre ceramics, and the Pre-Raphaelite paintings of his wife Evelyn De Morgan. 30 places. £6+SAE.
Friday 3rd May
Interest in the Middle Ages and a passion for Arthurian myth seemed to invade
every area of Victorian culture. This
study day, jointly organised with Tate
4. Conferences
a. Architecture and
History.
A joint symposium of the Royal Historical Society and the
Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, in association with
the Departmentof History,
Helen Langley (Bodleian Library,
Melanie Hall (
Robert Proctor (
For the full programme see http://www.rhs.ac.uk/archprog.html.
b. Irish Research
St Patrick's College Irish Research Inaugural Irish Research
Seminar will be held on the 12th and 13th April
at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra,
There will be discussion on new
directions in Irish Studies beforegraduate students, faculty and the interested
public. Supported by theResearch Committee,
St Patrick's College and the
The St Patrick's College Inaugural Lecture on 'Current cultural
debatein
Free Registration. All welcome. Registration forms from seminar organisers
Dr Mary Shine Thompson, English Department, St Patrick's College mary.thompson@spd.ie
Dr Nicholas Allen, English Department, Trinity College Dublin allenn@tcd.ie
c. Gender, Sexuality
and Queer Studies
Picking up Professor Kiberd's theme will be the Colloquium on Gender, Sexuality and Queer Studies in Irish Cultural Criticism, 22nd April, University College Dublin. This event is sponsored by the Department of Modern English and the Women's Education, Research, and Resource Centre. A wine reception will follow the proceedings. All are welcome and there is no registration fee.
Confirmed speakers are:
Anne Fogarty (
Gerardine Meaney (Centre for Film Studies,UCD): 'Sexual Dissidence and Æsthetic Freedom: Cross Dressing in Irish Fiction and Film';
Katherine O'Donnell (Women's Education, Research, and Resource Centre): 'Queer Theory and Irish Lesbian Narratives II: Kate O'Brien's Mary Lavelle';
Michael O'Rourke (
D.C. Rose (Goldsmith's College,
Eibhear Walshe (National
A roundtable discussion will follow (audience participation welcome)
For more information please contact the organizer, Michael O'Rourke. E-mail: tranquilised_icon@yahoo.com
Michael O'Rourke writes 'One of the most significant developments in the last ten years in Irish Studies has been the induction of queer theories and methodologies into the study of Irish texts and contexts, both modern and premodern. This interdisciplinaryapproach has offered many new possibilities for scholars working on sexuality and gender in Irish literature, film, and culture yet the most theoretically and politically engaged work being done in this area is by scholars whoare based outside of Ireland. Luke Gibbons, Margot Backus, Katie Conrad, Elizabeth Butler Cullingford, James Doan, Lance Pettitt, Kieran Kennedy, Colleen Lamos and Joe Valente to name but a few of the leading figures producing this kind of work are all based at universities in the United States or United Kingdom. This one day colloquium will mark the increasing importanceof queer discourse for reconfiguring Irish cultural studies while also foregrounding questions about the kinds of hurdles there are to be negotiated before one can even begin to open up a queer dialogue in this country. The kinds of intersectional thinking around queer and feminist, Marxistand postcolonial theories will in particular be highlighted to demonstrate the many fruitful avenues this approach offers to a new generation of Irish scholars. By inviting the foremost scholars in this field it is hoped that this colloquium will engender an exciting polylogue which will prove informative to those interested in or who wish to learn more about the subject.'
More of this will doubtless be heard at
d. Roger Casement.
The Third
This conference opens at 6.30pm on the evening of Friday 19th April in the Chancellor's Court, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, with a key-note address by Professor Bill Mc Cormack (Goldsmiths College), followed by a wine reception hosted by the Irish Ambassador.
Two days of papers and video-shows follow at Goldsmiths College, The Small Hall, Main Building, Lewisham Way, New Cross, London SE14 6NW.
Speakers include Teresa Brennan (Florida Atlantic), Helen Carr (Goldsmiths), Mary E. Daly (University College Dublin), Reinhard Doerries (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg), James Horan (John Jay College, New York), Eunan O'Halpin (Trinity College Dublin), Seamas O Siocháin (NUI, Maynooth), and Katie Wales (University of Leeds).
The Sunday morning session will include a discussion of forensic issues, including the Giles Report and the prospects for a linguistic analysisof the Black Diaries.
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/casement
e. Victorian
Shakespeare: Narratives, Images, Performances
This two-day conference takes as its theme the presence of Shakespeare and his works in the Victorian period, the various interconnected ways in which that presence makes itself felt or is conjured up in and through narrative, image and performance. It will cover many aspects of the Victorian Shakespeare, including the perpetuation and popularity of specific works and characters, but it will aim particularly to address the nature of the dialogue between Victorian writers, artists and performers and the Shakespearean texts, matters and motifs on which they notably fasten.
Conference Organisers: Adrian Poole (
Venue and Enquiries:
We hope this may uncover something about Wilde, Harris,
and Shaw as well as
f. Victorian Anxieties
|
Friday 11th April Anxious Authors Moderated by Jonathan
Loesberg ( 'Authorized Anxieties:
Family Bibles, Family Values and the British Imperial 'Anxieties of Authorship:
Swinburne's 'Heptalogia' and the Problem of Authenticity.' Jennifer Wagner Lawlor, 'Tennyson's 'Maud' and
the Silencing of the Poet.' Cornelia D.
Pearsall, Flickering Anxieties
Ernst Lubitsch's Film
of Lady Windemere's Fan (1925), Introduced by Robert Lang,
Saturday 12th April Imperial Uncertainties
Moderated by Barbara
Black, 'Bad Cop/Good Cop: Thugee
and the Policing of Victorian Anxiety.' Caroline Reitz, 'Mr. Punch's Crinoline
Anxiety: the Rhetoric of Dress
and the Indian Rebellion.' Terri Hassler, 'Managing Mourning.
'Theorizing Anxiety
and Justifying Empire: Fantasy and History in Victorian Imperial Fiction
and Psychoanalysis.' Ronald Thomas, Fearful Reproductions
Moderated by Suzy Anger. 'Near Confinement: Pregnancy,
Anxiety and Nineteenth-Century British Fiction.' Cynthia Northcutt
Malone, 'Anxious Economies: Blood and Milk at the Fin de Siècle.' Jules Law, Northwestern University. ''The Boundless World
of Dingy People'. The 1890s and the Malaise of the Suburb.' Julie
English Early, ''Lips Compressed for
Curses'. Working-Class Speech and Violence in Passages in The Life
of a Radical and Mary Barton' Ivan Kreilkamp, 'Overdrawn Accounts:
Anxieties of Debt and Representation in Little Dorrit.' David
Evans, |
Saturday 12th April (continued) Moderated by Jonathan Rose, 'Courting Anxiety: The Expert Witnesses,
the Common Man and the Problem of Fact in the Modern World.' Shelia Sullivan, St. Mary's 'Worrying the Marriage Plot: Trollope's
Can You Forgive Her?' Sharon
Marcus, 'Novel Anxieties: Barnaby Rudge
and Victorian Crowd Control.' Lisa Rodensky, Sunday 13th April Teaching Victorian Literature and Culture Moderated by Pat Saunders-Evans,
'Groundless Optimism: Victorian
Ballooning Memoirs and the Pleasures of Risk.' Elaine Freedgood, 'The Beetle and Anxieties of Imperial
Identity’: Marcus Elmore, 'Affect, Anxiety and the Victorian
Post Office.' Eileen Cleere, Moderated by Deborah Thomas, 'Black Arts, Ruined Cathedrals
and the Grave in Engraving. Ruskin and the Fatal Excess of Art.' Jonah
Siegal, 'Spiritual Seductions: Mid-Victorian
Worries and the Connelly v Connelly Case.' Tricia Lootens, 'The Anxiety of Corruption: Can
You Remember When Tour of |
g. 'New Approaches
to Zola'
Universityof Cambridge, 16th and 17th April.
Visit the website at http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/french/news/zola_prog.html
For more information and a booking form, please contact:
Dr Hannah Thompson,
h. Midwest Victorian Studies
The 26th annual Association Conference will be held on 19th & 20th April at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Registration forms have been sent to all current MVSA members; others may request them from Anne M. Windholz at windholz@inst.augie.edu. The conference programme and registration form are available on the MVSA website: http://www2.ic.edu/mvsa/program02.html
i. Northeast Victorian
Studies
The Northeast Victorian Studies Association will be held on the 19th to 21st April. The conference programme is now available on the NVSA website at http://www.stonehill.edu/nvsa/flyer2002.htm
This year's conference includes a keynote panel on 'Knowing
the Past'(speakers: Chris Bongie, Richard Dellamora, Kate Flint, and
CarolynWilliams) and a teaching forum on
Papers that touch on 1890s topics
include Frederick S. Roden (
The Program Chair is Suzy Anger (
j. Midlands Interdisciplinary
Victorian Studies
Joanne Shattock (
Nicola Bown,
Rosie Miles, Department of English,
Marion Thain, Department of English,
k.
Gay Æsthetes at the Fin-de-Siècle
Out Professionals and the Lesbian, Gay,
| Part I. Thursday
18th April Allen Ellenzweig on 'Oscar Wilde, Wilhelm von Gloeden, F. Holland Day: L'art pour l'art and the Emergence of a Homosexual "Species"'. Presenting turn-of-the-century images of androgynous male youth posed by Baron von Gloeden in Taormina, Italy, and those by the Boston-based æsthete and publisher F. Holland Day, Ellenzweig will demonstrate how the utopian vision of Greek love expressed by these photographers was the equivalent of the nearly century-long tradition of boy-love poetry given new voice by the so-called 'Uranian' or Decadent poets writing in England during the fin de siècle. With Oscar Wilde as their chief exponent, the Decadents offered in their writings a universe of sexual and moral ethics alternate to the rigid patriarchy of the late Victorian era. These alternate standards betrayed the influence of several significant French literary texts championing art for art's sake. By their art and their lives, Wilde, von Gloeden, and Day introduced an indelible profile of an emerging social category, the homosexual, at the very moment when pioneering defenders of sexual inversion, like Edward Carpenter, Havelock Ellis, and John Addington Symonds, were taking the first tentative steps toward influencing juridical and medical policy. These and other figures of the period will also be pictured in Ellenzweig's lecture. Furthermore, by the infamy of the Oscar Wilde trials, this emerging subculture of aesthete libertines became increasingly known and named to a wider public, and more aware of itself as a social, if not yet political, entity. Their predatory profile, however dubious, may well have been the necessary shaping influence upon several generations of homosexuals up through the era of 1960s sexual liberation. Allen Ellenzweig is the author of The Homoerotic Photograph: Male Images from Durieu/Delacroix to Mapplethorpe published by Columbia University Press. He is a public relations administrator at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. |
Part II. Tuesday 30th April James Elliott Benjamin on 'Sex, Love, and the Arts and Crafts Movement: C. R. Ashbee and His "Homogenic"Circle'. English architect, designer, and social reformer Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942) was a significant figure in the history of late Victorian and Edwardian design. A leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement, a protest against the degradation of art and labor by the machine, his Guild of Handicraft (1888-1907), which produced furniture, interiors, metalwork, and hand-printing, influenced the formation of craft guilds on both sides of the Atlantic, from Josef Hoffmann's Wiener Werkstäte in Vienna to Elbert Hubbard's Roycrofters in upstate New York. One of the guiding principles of Ashbee's philosophy was the conceptof 'homogenic love', a purified ideal of homosexuality and brotherhood espoused by Edward Carpenter, Ashbee's mentor. Carpenter, considered England's Walt Whitman, was a socialist, guru of simple living, and gay rights pioneer who believed that through Whitmanesque 'comradeship' and sympathy for the working man one could break down the barriers between the social classes and create a 'new freemasonry of men'. Ashbee tried to fashion the heterosexual, predominately working-class men and boys of his Guild in to a platonic brotherhood of artisans, and they led the 'simple life' in the rural Cotswolds. Outside the Guild, however, in Ashbee's dandified circle of artists, writers,and clients, one finds more telling signs of homoeroticism and boy-love. This lecture will explore the relationship between Ashbee's sexuality and his work as a designer against the climate of homosexual repression in late Victorian and Edwardian England. James Elliott Benjamin is a design historianin
|
Both lectures held at:
Lesbian, Gay,
Nonmembers $10 OP and Center Members $7
For further information, please see http://outprofessionals.org
5. Papers and Publications
Lady Wilde's Poems (1871?) edited by Perry Willett have been transcribed and encoded by Carolyn C. Sherayko for the Library Electronic Text Resource Service (LETRS), Indiana University Bloomington,IN and can be found viâ the Victorian Women Writers Project Library http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/wilde/speranza.html
Alfred Armstrong writes 'A piece of news: the Gutenberg project have put the first volume of Frank Harris's life of Wilde online at
This is a year ahead of schedule, I believe.'
News has just reached us of an article on Whistler by Elaine Adams in the California Art Club Newsletter, December 2001.
Kathleen Raine's W.B.Yeats or the Power of the Imagination is now published as W.B.Yeats ou le pouvoir de l'imagination, trad. Jacqueline Genet avec la collab. de Wynne Hellgouarc'h, Paris, Hermann, 2002, p.138. 18 euros. ISBN 2 7056 6410 6
The sixth newsletter (volume II Number 3 March) of the British Association for Victorian Studies has now been published. www.qub.ac.uk/en/socs/bavs/bavs/htm.
Round
V. BEING TALKED ABOUT: CALLS FOR PAPERS
« Detfinns bara en sak som
är värre än att någon pratarilla om en och det är att ingen pratar om en alls
»
We hope these may attract Wildëans.
Any specific papers on Wilde will be noted in future issues of THE OSCHOLARS.
[For last month's CFPs, click here. To skip this section: click here]
__________________
We preface this month's Conference section with an offer from Gerard Reidy, Principal, LITES2000, who alluding to what we believe will strike a sympathetic chord - the need of many readers of conference papers to address the audience and not the ceiling, the lectern or emergency exit - writes
I am responsible for running a summer school which provides performance training for adults. We are all professional actors, directors, broadcasters,etc., who attempt to instruct participants on the practical aspects ofpresenting themselves and their work before a television, or live audience.
Details of this may be found at the LITES website www.lites2000.com, Gerard Reidy has very generously said that if any reader wishes to book a place and mention THE OSCHOLARS 'we will be delighted to offer them a 10% discount.' He can be contactedat Principal@lites2000.com. We shall carry a longer notice in the May issue.
1. CALL FOR PAPERS: Æstheticismand Modernism
Modernist Studies Association
MSA site: www.msa.press.uhu.edu
'The discovery of
I am seeking submissions for a proposed three-person panel for the 2002 meeting of the Modernist Studies Association. The panel will explore the complex relationship between Modernism and late nineteenth-century Æstheticism. Recent work by scholars such as Jonathan Freedman has challenged traditional readings of Modernism as either a fulfilment or a betrayal of the Æsthetic movement and calls for a re-examination of the negotiations Modernists and their critics make with the legacy of Æstheticism. Papers that deal with the impact of the Æsthetic movement on American Modernists are particularly welcome. How did nation inflect the interest Modernists had in Æstheticism? What sorts of anxieties were felt by artists raised on American myths of democracy and progress when they drew upon the literature of aristocratic decline? Did the Æsthetic movement pose special difficultiesfor American Modernists? Did it hold special appeal?
Papers might consider topics such as
Ex-patriots and Æstheticism;
The Yellow 'Nineties and the Jazz Age;
Æstheticism and the American South;
The Æsthetic movement in the American cultural marketplace;
The American dandy.
Please submit a 150-200 word abstract, CV, and contact information by 15th April. E-mail submissions are preferred.
Send all information to Lucas Tromly, Dept. of English,
2. CALL FOR PAPERS: Idealisms and Materialisms
British Association for Victorian Studies,
2002 Annual Conference, 5th to 7th September 2002 at the
Papers of about 20 minutes in length are invited under either or both of the above headings, on topics from literature, history, philosophy,sociology, gender studies, drama, politics, religion, the visual arts, film, or any other appropriate discipline, from the Victorian period. Possible topics might include: history of ideas, subjectivity, morality, ethics, aestheticism, romanticism, the imagination, the visionary, the unconscious, spirituality, transcendentalism, mesmerism, the soul, social idealism, money and banking, the body, science, technology, the mass-market, industry, gadgets and 'things', inventions, engineering, self-help, iron and steel,water, glass, the city, housing.
Please send an abstract of not more than 300 words to
Professor Valerie Sanders, English Department,
3. CALL FOR PAPERS: Love and Sexuality
A one-day postgraduate conference at the
This will be the first French
studies postgraduate conference at the
Both ‘love’ and ‘sexuality’ can be seen to inform and problematise all areas of modern and contemporary French and francophone studies, and the theme of this conference should therefore be of wide appeal and relevance to not only postgraduates but the academic community as a whole.
Abstracts for twenty-minute papers on topics from any period are invited from postgraduate students. Contributors may wish to be guided by the following list of suggested areas:
representations of love and/or sexuality;
the role of love and/or sexuality in artistic creation;
sexuality in modern
love and friendship;
images of the body;
gender trouble: the subversion or reinforcement of traditional gender roles;
love and tragedy;
courtly and/or romantic love;
homosexuality;
resistence and desire;
eroticism and pornography;
language and gender;
gender and space;
power and sexuality.
The final deadline for receipt of short abstracts (of around 250 words) is 31st May. Please e-mail abstracts and any inquiries to Sarah Donachie (fllsfd@leeds.ac.uk) or Kim Harrison (fllkth@leeds.ac.uk). Further information can be found on our website at
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/french/PostgradStudies/pgconf/index.htm
4. CALL FOR PROPOSALS: William Morris Society Sessions
The Modern Language Association Convention, 27th to 30th
December,
[Please note: As an allied organization, the William Morris Society is guaranteed two panels; they are not "special sessions."]
The Morris Society invites submissions on 'The Arts and Crafts Movement: Nineteenth-Century Ideas, Twentieth-Century Effect' and 'New Views of the Pre-Raphaelite Writers and Their Work'.
Behind the artifacts, architecture, and institutions of Modern art and design lie ideas - æsthetic, social, political - many of which originated in the Arts and Crafts movement of the nineteenth century. This panel will explore the influence of the Arts and Crafts progenitors, theorists, and exponents (figures such as William Morris, John Ruskin, Candace Wheeler, Walter Crane, Christopher Dresser, Henry Cole, Arthur H. Mackmurdo, Mary Haweis, or W. R. Lethaby, to name a few) on twentieth-century artists, designers, typographers, and writers. The topic will be interpreted broadly, and papers may deal with specific individuals (for example, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gustav Stickley, Otto Wagner, Helen and Scott Nearing, etc.), specific kinds of artifacts (private press books, Mission furniture, The Craftsman magazine), or groups (the Bauhaus, Omega Workshops, the Roycrofters).
The Chair of this session will be Margaret D. Stetz,
E-mail submissions of the 250-word proposals (to Biblio@aol.com) are preferred.
Proposals are due no later than 25th March and go to Mark
Samuels Lasner, President, William Morris Society in the
---------------------------------------------
II. 'New Views of the Pre-Raphaelite Writers and Their Work'.
The Pre-Raphaelite writers and their associates have, in the last decade, been the subject of renewed interest. Editions of their correspondence, editions of their poetry and prose, and a plethora of books and articles all have opened the way for expanded or different - in some cases revisionist- views of their lives and works. We seek biographical or critical discussionswhich deal with recent information or interpretations or which, alternatively, provide such new information or interpretations themselves. The Pre-Raphaelite writers are defined here as the original members of the Brotherhood and their associates, friends, and immediate followers - the lesser known writers (such as William Allingham, Simeon Solomon, and Barbara Bodichon), as well as the canonical figures, including the Rossettis (Christina, Dante Gabriel, and William Michael), Morris, Ruskin, and Swinburne.
The Chair of this session will be Florence Boos,
E-mail submissions of the 250-word proposals (to Biblio@aolcom) are preferred. Proposals are due no later than 25th March
and go to Proposals are due no later than 25th March and go to Mark
Samuels Lasner, President, William Morris Society in the US, P.O.
Participation by independent scholars and non-academics is especially encouraged, but please be aware that to take part in the MLA conventionand to be listed in the program all speakers must be members of the Modern Language Association by 1st April 2002, unless not professionally engaged inthe teaching of literature or language. Papers are strictly limited to 15 minutes in reading length, as per MLA regulations; session chairs will stop those who exceed this limit.
Proposals should also state what kinds(s) of audio-visual equipment, if any, will be needed, if the paper is accepted.
We regret that we received notice of this too late for the March issueof THE OSCHOLARS.
5.
CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Queer Lives/Public Performances: Gender, Performance
and Performativity in Nineteenth Century England
Proposed Special Session for the 2002
MLA Convention,
In the long nineteenth century, the ability to properly perform gender was essential to social acceptance and the fissures that appear in the works of those straining to present appropriate masculinity or femininity reveal the artificiality of the traditional binaries. In Bodies that Matter, Judith Butler addresses the performed/performative confusion, distinguishing between the bounded act of the individual performance and the cultural iterationof the performative. Clearly the performative extends far beyond any given performance, and this panel is interested in how a kind of performance might come to impact ongoing cultural constructions of gender over time, perhaps even loosening the strictly limited definitions of gender that abound in periods like nineteenth-century Britain. We are particularly interested in developing a panel whose papers communicate to and with each other on the timeline of the long nineteenth century, both exposing and exploding accepted stereotypes of Romantic/Victorian sexuality and gender. All kinds of performance are of interest, from the textual self created by autobiographic writing and self-referential poetry to the theatrical work of professional performers. As such, topics addressed might include, but are not limited to:
mis/performance of gender norms in daily lives;
Romantic or Victorian era theatre;
actors/actresses;
the embedding of self in fictional works;
the narration of a gendered self in letters/autobiography;
biographical mis/readings of subjective gender norms;
subversions of hegemonic sexuality;
applications of
E-mail 1-2 page abstracts and brief CVs (preferably as attachments in MS Word) to either cwiebe@tulane.edu or rwerner@tulane.edu by 15th March
Robin Werner and Caroline Wiebe Kimberly, English Department,
Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
We regret that we received notice of this too late for the March issueof THE OSCHOLARS.
6. CALL FOR PAPERS: Film and Literature
Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) Conference, 8th to 10th November.
Proposals are invited for papers on any aspect of Film and Literature, including (but not limited to) film adaptation of literature, narrative strategies in film, film genres, or strategies for teaching film.
Send 500-word proposal and 50-word abstract by 15th March, to phdemory@ucdavis.edu. E-mail submissions preferred (please paste into the body of the e-mail message itself - no attachments).
Queries welcome.
Submissions by regular mail may be sent to Pamela Demory,
English Department,
Presenters at the November conference must be PAMLA members
by
We regret that we received notice of this too late for the March issueof THE OSCHOLARS
7. CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Illustration/Re-illustration/De-illustration'
Deadline for Abstracts: 1st April
This session on is sponsored by the Illustrated Texts section of the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA).
We are soliciting papers that specifically address the conference theme of "Thinking Post-Identity." We seek submissions which explore theways that identities (sex/gendered, racial/ethnic) are coded, changed, and/or deleted in literary texts as graphic, or visual illustrations.
Submissions on any of a wide variety of texts--including children'sliterature, periodical publications, and non-fiction--are welcome.
Please email 500-word abstracts by 1st April to lcasmier@mail.ucf.edu OR deirdre-mcmahon@uiowa.edu
PLEASE NOTE: E-mailed abstracts must be included in the body of the email and not as an attachment.
We regret that we received notice of this too late for the March issueof THE OSCHOLARS.
8. CALL FOR PAPERS: Victorian session at the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture
Conference in
Please send proposals to Richard Currie, CSI/CUNY. Currie@postbox.csi.cuny.edu.
9.
CALL FOR PAPERS: Midwest Conference on British Studies
Annual Meeting October 18th to 20th
The Midwest Conference on British Studies will hold its
annual meetingin
The MWCBS seeks papers from scholars in all fields of British studies, including advanced graduate students. Proposals for complete sessions organized around a common theme are preferred, though proposals for individual papers will be considered if they can be combined with others. A complete session generally consists of three papers (20 minutes each), a chair, and a commentator. Proposals will also be considered for roundtable discussions of important or timely subjects. Proposals should include a 200-word abstract for each paper and a brief c.v. for each participant, including chairs and commentators.
The MWCBS will award a prize for the best graduate student paper givenat the conference.
All proposals should be submitted by 1st April to:
Michael B. Young, Program Chair, MWCBS, Department of History,
Illinois Wesleyan University, PO Box 2900, Bloomington, IL
10. CALL FOR PAPERS: The representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, and transvestite folk in popular culture
… are welcomed for the Mid-Atlantic
Popular/American Culture Association to be held in
Please send an abstract of 300 words by 1st June to
Suzanne Kaebnick, English Department,
11. CALL FOR PAPERS: Film (Open Topic)
I am seeking paper proposals for a film panel at the upcoming
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in
For more information about the conference, follow this URL:
Dr Robert C. Sickels, Department of Rhetoric and Film Studies, Whitman College, Walla Walla,
WA
We regret that we received notice of this too late for the March issueof THE OSCHOLARS
12. CALL FOR PAPERS: Women in Nineteenth-Century American Theatre
In connection with the work done by the
women playwrights (either biographies or analyses of their work). We areparticularly interested in lesser known dramatists who are not usually anthologised;
women critics;
dramatization of novels (either the novel or its dramatization should be written by a woman);
actresses;
women managers;
women spectators;
No more than one essay per person. Required length: 6000 to 7500 words. MLA format strictly required
Enquiries and completed essays (one hard copy + disk) should be submittedto the editors at the following addresses by 30th June.
Dr Miriam Lopez & Dr Lola Narbona,
Departamento de FilologÌa Inglesa, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras,
13. CALL FOR PAPERS: Victorian Institutions
The Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the
Western United States (VISAWUS) announces its seventh annual conference, hosted
by
The focus of this year's conference is 'Victorian Institutions'. We invite proposals for 20 minute papers or three-paper panels addressing the full range of what we would consider typically (or uniquely) Victorian institutions: the Colonial Office, the literary establishment, the army, the church (or churches), schools and education, æsthetic taste, the Royal Academy and its annual exhibits, the periodical press etc.
Paper proposals, a maximum of the equivalent of two double-spaced pages, should be emailed to Professor George Griffith Ggriffith@CSC1.CSC.edu.
Further information, including keynote speaker, local hotels, and fees, will be available soon from Conference Chair Carol Martin at Cmartin@boisestate.edu.
Deadline for proposals will be 7th June
14. CALL FOR PAPERS: Society for Utopian Studies
Founded in 1975, the Society is an international, interdisciplinary association devoted to the study of utopianism in all its forms, with a particular emphasis on literary and experimental utopias. Scholars representing a wide variety of disciplines are active in the association and approach utopian studies from such diverse backgrounds as American Studies, Architecture, the Arts, Classics, Cultural Studies, Economics, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Gender Studies, History, Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology and Urban Planning. The Society publishes the journal Utopian Studies and a newsletter, Utopus Discovered, which contains information about upcoming conferences and workshops, and a bibliography of recent publications in the field.
The Society' s annual meetings provide an ideal venue for intellectual interchange in a cooperative, non-competitive, congenial, and convivial environment. At each meeting the Society presents the Arthur O. Lewis Award for the best paper by a junior scholar given at the previous annual meeting and the Eugenio Battisti Award for the best article in each volume of our journal, Utopian Studies.
For more information, see our website at www.utoronto.ca/utopia.
If you wish to organize a panel or present a paper, submit a 1-2 pageabstract by 15th May to:
SUS 2002, Department of Foreign Languages
and Literatures, P.O.
John Barberet barberet@mail.ucf.edu fax
15. CALL FOR PAPERS: Trans/Inter-Cultural Communication
The Seventh International Symposium on
Comparative Literature. Department of English Language
and Literature.
This conference invites dialogue across cultures and traditional disciplinary boundaries. Papers are invited dealing with all aspects of interdisciplinary study, in all Literatures in English and in translation, as well as in the Arts, the Humanities and Sciences. The conference encourages submissions that examine 'language' and 'text' both within these disciplines and across these disciplines. The aim is to provide studies that help in crossing cultural and language barriers.
Suggested Topic Areas include:
Cultural Crossing;
Cultural Friction;
Crossing Boundaries of Ethnicity;
Inter-gender communication;
New developments;
The rôle of translation;
Cross-linguistic / cross-cultural studies.
Keynote speakers will include writers on inter-disciplinary studiesand cultural communication.
The official languages of the Symposium are Arabic and English. Presentations during the Symposium should not exceed 20 minutes. Deadline for submission of abstract 15th May.
Please send both a typewritten hard copy and diskette to:
Chair, The Department of English
Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts,
16. CALL FOR PAPERS: Narrative Theories and Practices in Children's and Young Adult Literature
Special issue of Children's Literature Association Quarterly: (Spring2003)
Guest editors Mike Cadden and Andrea Schwenke Wyile invite papers that explore the narrative peculiarities, innovations, and/or conventions in children's and/or young adult literature. Comparisons to adult literature are welcome. We are especially interested in irony/parody, focalization, and narration, but all narratological issues and approaches are welcome.
Possible questions to explore include: Does narrative theory offer us a way to talk about the kinds of narrative structure or styles of narration present in children's and young adult literature? If not, what'smissing? Do these genres explore the same narrative terrain as adult literature? What do the practices of children's literature have to offer narrative theory? What does narrative theory have to offer the study of the unique genres of children's and young adult literature?
Deadline for submissions: 15th July (e-mail submissions welcome). Send papers and inquiries to:
Mike Cadden, Dept. of English, Missouri Western State, College
St. Joseph, MO
Andrea Schwenke Wyile, English Department,
andrea.schwenke.wyile@acadiau.ca.
17. CALL FOR PAPERS: Victorian Travel & Travellers
7th annual conference of the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States (VISAWUS)
We invite proposals for 20 minute papers or for panels of four papers on all aspects of travel during the Victorian period. Papers might address such topics as the visual culture of travel, travel journals & writings, spas & spa culture, music & travel, science/medicine & travel, literature of the sea, guidebooks, grand tour, maritime history, souvenirs of travel, immigration & emigration, etc. Papers are invited by scholars working in any relevant discipline (or in combinations thereof).
The conference, which takes place
on 10th to 12th October is being hosted by
The keynote speaker will be Linda
K. Hughes, Addie Professor of English at TCU. Her two recent books on serial fiction, The
Victorian Serial and Victorian Publishing and Mrs.Gaskell's Work,
have already become standard in the field.
She has also published on Tennyson (The Many-faced Glass),
Please submit abstracts of about 200 words to
Arnold Schmidt, English Department, California State University,
Stanislaus, 801 West Monte Vista Avenue, Turlock, CA
Deadline for proposals will be 7th June.
18. CALL FOR PAPERS: L'Irlande et ses Représentations
Colloque du Groupe de Recherche en Etudes
Irlandaises, 19 et 20 septembre, à l'Université de Caen.
Vous pouvez dès à présent envoyer vos
propositionsde communications par courrier électronique à
Thierry Dubost, dubost@cte.unicaen.fr
ou Anne-Catherine Lobo lobo@lve.unicaen.fr.
Vous pouvez également nous adresser vos
propositions par courier: Département d'anglais, Université de Caen, Esplanade
de la Paix
19. CALL FOR PAPERS: Victorian Gothic
During the nineteenth century
there was a resurgence of the Gothic. Victorian
Gothic can be traced through many forms, in material cultures and genres often
not quite 'Gothic'. The relationship
between the scientific and the literary text, melodramatic representations
of the Gothicbody, the intersection of sexuality and degeneration, theories
of anthropology and evolution, all continue to fascinate.
But have we gone too far in Gothicising Victorian culture? Has ‘gothic’
been stretched beyond reason? Or should
we be extending its boundaries? What was the relationship between Gothic memorials,
town halls and statuary and the formation of Victoriannational identity? Or between the medieval revivalists, nostalgia,
andthe fear of loss and degeneration? Could it make sense to talk of 'TractarianGothic'?
How did the Victorians read the labyrinthine spaces of their cities? Did 'darkest
Proposals (300 words) are invited for papers that deal with
any aspect of the Victorian Gothic. Papers
that adopt an interdisciplinary approach and which seek to consider the use
of the gothic as an analytical device are especially sought, but studies with
a narrower focus and an interest in the wider context are also welcome.
Deadline for proposals
A selection of the papers will be published as Volume 6
of the Leeds Working Papers in Victorian Studies and distributed to all participants.
Please send proposals to: Dr Karen Sayer or Dr Rosemary Mitchell, Leeds
Centre for Victorian Studies, Trinity and All Saints,
Or e-mail: k_sayer@tasc.ac.uk
or r_mitchell@tasc.ac.uk. Tel. (
20. CALL FOR PAPERS: Nineteenth-Century Feminisms
This interdisciplinary journal is published twice yearly, fourth issue just released, devoted to issues of gender, culture, and writing by and about women in the nineteenth century.
Papers dealing with women in the long nineteenth century (1780 to 1918), from such diverse disciplines as architecture, art, art history, cultural studies, gardening, the history of science, literary studies,medicine and technology, music, philosophy, psychology, and theatre historyare welcome.
More information can be found at http://www.odyssey.on.ca/~ncf/
_________________________________________________
« Detfinns bara en sak som
är värre än att någon pratarilla om en och det är att ingen pratar om en alls
»
VI. NOTES AND QUERIES.
1. Obituary
We regret to record the death of Christopher Brooks, Professor
of Victorian Culture at the
v
Christopher Leonard Brooks, Victorianist, born London 23rd January
1949, died Crediton,
2. Naming Names.
We wonder how many readers are aware of Oscar O'Flahertie
William Wills Wilde (fl.1740-50), described as an 'Irish gardener employed
on the estate of Arkady Appolinarevich Tarasov near Yekaterinoslav (now
3. Oscar Wilde's sailing to America
John Cooper writes:
Reporting Oscar's departure for
http://istg.rootsweb.com/v2/1800v2/arizona18820103.html
4. The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Richard Wright (
I am seeking advice as a forensic archaeologist.
It is well known that quicklime (CaO) is used by executioners and murderers. The motives in using quicklime are mixed--execration of the dead, disinfecting, accelerated destruction of the remains.
On theoretical and empirical grounds it appears that accelerated destruction of the remains does not happen. Applying quicklime enhances survival of soft tissue (temporarily) and bone (permanently).
I am therefore interested in the history of using quicklime, attitudes to its use and any rationalisations for its use. I guess that many tonnes were fruitlessly applied in Victorian England and so think members of this list may be able to point me to sources. Does anybody, for instance, know of manuals for executioners? Public health manuals?
Richard Wright richwrig@tig.com.au
Further discussion is encouraged, perhaps in our JISCmail section.
5. The Nightingale and the Rose
One of the rarer items of Wildeana to be discovered on the
Web must be a Catalan translation of The Nightingale and the Rose,
as 'El Rossinyol i la
Perhaps a reader might like to research this a little?
The site is at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4045/owilde1.html and is accompanied by this illustration, again, anonymous.
6. Thomas Bell
Our last ring for Thomas Bell brought this response from
Horst Schroeder (
I have noticed in THE OSCHOLARS,
vol.2, no.1, the query concerning Thomas Bell's 'Oscar Wilde without Whitewash".
Though you say that there is no mention of this in Richard Ellmann,
could it be that you have overlooked Ellmann's endnote p.
586 n. 86 (Englishedition)
where he speaks of "
I do not know whether this MS
is the work you are looking for, but I think a letter of inquiry to the
Once more we are indebted to Dr Schroeder's minute knowledge of Ellmann, express our surprise that no other biographer seems to have used this MS (and one wonders why Ellmann only cites it once), nd record our disappointment that nobody from the Clark responded.
7. Evelyn De Morgan and William De Morgan
The new public gallery and study centre, which will house the De Morgan Foundation's large collection of paintings and drawings by the Pre-Raphaelite artist, Evelyn De Morgan, and the ceramicist and novelist, William De Morgan, is due to open to the public on 12th April. It will be primarily a public gallery (most of these works have been in private collections with little public access for the past hundred years) but will also eventually house the archive material relating to the De Morgans,and materials belonging to Evelyn's sister and biographer, A.M.W. Stirling. The website is www.demorgan.org.uk
Further information from Lois Drawmer LDRAWMER@aol.com.
8. Eleonora Duse
Readers will recall that Wilde when in
9. Arthur Symons
Kirsten MacLeod (
10. The Voice of Oscar Wilde
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/clarklib/wildvoic.htm
'The Voice of Oscar Wilde: An Investigation.' By Jonathan Vickers and Peter Copeland
Reprinted from BASC News, #2, 1987, p. 21-25.
© The British Library. Reproduced by permission.
11. The Ned Blessing TV Episode with Oscar Wilde
Elizabeth McCollum (
12. Oscar in PopularCulture
http://www.books-on-line.com/bookdisplay.cfm?BookNum=7614
13. Wilde as Unpopular Culture
14. Picked from the Platter
Patricia Soria de Miguel (Higher Education Authority website,
15. Corrigendum
Further Corrigenda are made in the
section 'A Wilde April'.
VII. 'MAD, SCARLET MUSIC'
Tine Englebert (
Perhaps readers can supply more?
VIII. GOING WILDE: PRODUCTIONS DURING APRIL 2002
1. England
Salome (Welsh National Opera) is at Liverpool Empire Theatre, Liverpool, on the 6th April.
2. France
3. Germany
4. Russia
5. Scotland
6. The United States
IX. THE OTHER OSCAR
We continue our biography drawn from immaculate sources of the other Oscar Wilde.
Sir Edward Clarke - the man who never was.
The biographical note says that Wilde
The following is from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/owilde.htm
In 1884 Wilde married Constance Lloyd (died 1898) […] The marriage ended in 1893.
He was sentenced two years hard labour for the crime of sodomy.
To be continued (contributions welcome) ...
X. WEB FOOT NOTES
A monthly look at websites (contributions welcome).
There is also a Simeon Solomon Research Archive at www.fau.edu/solomon
http://www.hermenaut.com/a163.shtml/
XI. SOME SELL AND OTHERS BUY.
Books in print mentioned in THE OSCHOLARS can be ordered from:
The Oscar Wilde Book Shop, 15 Christopher Street, New York, NY
Recent items of interest include
XII. A WILDE APRIL
Garb of woe will be appropriate on the following days.
XIII. AND I? MAY I SAY NOTHING?
Here is our own offering, a note on Salome and Eleonora Duse:
3 Joseph Francis Daly: The
Life of Augustin Daly.
11 Bosie left
13 William Weaver: Duse, A Biography.
XIV. THE OSCAR WILDE SOCIETY AND THE WILDEAN
| The Oscar Wilde Societymay be contacted by writing to the Hon. Secretary, The Wildean may be contacted by writingto its Editor, |