An Electronic Journal for the Exchange of
Information
on Current Research, Publications and
Productions
concerning
Oscar Wilde and His Circles
Vol. I No. 5
October 2001
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The fourth issue of THE OSCHOLARS was the first to be published as a webpage, an innovation that seems to have won your support. Of course anyone who so wishes can still receive it as an e-attachment. This, the fifth, issue will be transmitted to 316 readers in twenty-seven countries, the majority in one or other of over a hundred and fifty universities or university colleges. It is also accessible in the City Library, Ystad, Sweden; the National Library of Ireland; and the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. As always, suggestions for improvements, additions and above all corrections, are very welcome indeed.
Nothing in THE OSCHOLARS© is copyright to the Journal unless indicated by ©, and the usual etiquette of attribution will doubtless be observed. Please feel free to 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.
Names emboldened in the text below are those of subscribers to THE OSCHOLARS, who may be contacted through Melmoth@aliceadsl.fr. All blue text can be clicked for navigation through the document or to other addresses.
The assistance of Dr John Phelps of Goldsmiths College has again been invaluable. Our masthead was designed by Betsy Norris.
Editor: D.C. Rose, 1 rue Gutenberg, 75015 Paris.
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4.
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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 address if possible or relevant.
Notes & Queries: These can include points that you might like to see discussed in a 'Letters to the Editor' column.
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II. NEWS FROM SUBSCRIBERS
1. Publications and Papers
Christopher Fitz-Simon (Dublin) was recently guest speaker at the opening of an Exhibition of Set and Costume Designs by Micheál MacLíammóir at the Dublin Civic Museum. We reprint, by kind permission, his speech in a slightly edited version:
'This exhibition displays recent acquisitions by the Irish Theatre Archive. It is not intended as a comprehensive show of Michael MacLíammóir's designs. In the accompanying video Richard Pine has assembled a very wide selection of MacLíammóir's work from elsewhere. MacLíamóir was inclined to dismiss his training at the Slade Faculty of Art (as it then was) in London University, but if you look at those costume designs which were not dashed off in a frenzy occasioned by the inevitable and terrifying rise of curtain, you can see that study from life, from the model, did give him that essential understanding of the human form - the disposition of a foot, the turn of a head, the gesture of an arm - the things which give character to a costume, instead of rendering the body as a mere clothes-horse for the wardrobe mistress to follow.
'Much (too much, perhaps) has been written about the influences of Beardsley on the one hand and Bakst on the other. As bright-eyed bushy-tailed theatre-children, Alfred Wilmore (as he then was) and his sister Marjorie attended every available matinée of the Diaghilev Ballet in their native London; at this time they were working for the Beerbohm Tree and Dion Boucicault II managements; and who, at that age, and coming from such a background, would not be captivated by Bakst's designs? Yet when, in later life, you are designing, say, The Man who Came to Dinner by Kaufmann & Hart, a penchant for the Caucasian phantasmagoria of Bakst will hardly be a help. Similarly, if the job in hand is Liam O'Flaherty's The Informer, Beardsley's sinuous erotic line is not going to be much use to you. (Undoubtedly, and appropriately, there is much of Beardsley in MacLíammóir's early book illustrations.)
'To say that a painting is "derivative" is to denigrate sorely that painter's work; but derivation is a strength in a theatrical designer. There is the derivation which comes from library research - 1st century BC Egypt for Cæsar and Cleopatra, for example; and the other kind of derivation which stems from sheer instinct, and is somehow transmuted into something mysteriously germane to the playin hand: and I daresay a feeling for Beardsley or Bakst - and Picasso and Braque and Arthur Rackham and Harry Clarke and Mainie Jellett too for that matter - triumphantly enters this particular equation.
'MacLíammóir was a fine if uneven actor - he possessed a splendid Stage Personality, however; he was an entertaining writer, and a brilliant raconteur: but he was a designer of the first rank. The ephemeral nature of stage acting and the transitory shelf-life of books have now placed the focus on his visual work. Here you see gifts presented by George McFall, who was Stage Manager at the Gate Theatre and later at the Gaiety; by Maureen Hurley in memory of her father Sean Hurley, the film producer; and by Robert Turner, whose mother Pat Turner was a theatre producer and also for many years administrator of Edwards-MacLíammóir Dublin Gate Theatre Productions Ltd. Robert Turner's recent gift of his mother's collection, I understand, has occasioned this fascinating exhibition.
v Christopher Fitz-Simon is the author of The Boys, a biography of Micheál MacLíammóir and Hilton Edwards (London: Heinemann 1996). His play Between the Bark and the Tree was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996 with Simon Russell Beale as Oscar Wilde; his play Speranza was broadcast by RTÉ as part of their Oscar Wilde season in November 2000.
Richard Pine's latest paper on Wilde, 'Ireland as a State of Mind in the Work of Oscar Wilde', was given at the Conference 'Oscar Wilde and the Culture of the Fin-de-Siècle', William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles 9th April 1999.
Sound files of Wilde texts read by MacLíammóir can be found at http://www.geocities.com/~new/~spires/Concord/generation/wilde/macliammoir.html
Readers will have observed that Mr Fitz-Simons and Mr Pine (THE OSCHOLARS I/4) place the fada (accent) differently when spelling MacLíammóir / MacLiammóir and one also finds it written with a space after the Mac. This may perhaps be best seen as part of the ambivalence of the man.
David Gerstner (City University, New York) writes 'I have an essay in the Stanford Humanities Review that, in part, deals with Wilde and the writing of History. Its reference is: "Queer Angels of History: Take It and Leave It from Behind.” Stanford Humanities Review: Inside the Film Archive: Practice, Theory, Canon. Edited by Richard Benjamin. Volume 7.2. (Autumn 1999): 150-165.'
Michelle Mendelssohn (King's College, Cambridge) is giving a paper on 'Henry James, Oscar Wilde and "The House Beautiful"' at the sixth annual conference of VISAWUS (Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western US) hosted by the Department of English at UCLA 25th to 27th October 2001. We reprint, by kind permission, the abstract.
In this paper, I want to examine Wilde's and James's relationship through the prism of the "House Beautiful" and interior decoration. By reading Wilde's lectures on the decorative arts in dialogue with James's The Spoils of Poynton, I hope to reveal the ways in which both texts and authors criticise, condone and, occasionally, commend fin de siècle commodity culture. What do James's and Wilde's attitudes towards the house beautiful tell us about the house of fiction? Is the beautiful house merely a gilded cage? In investigating these questions, I want to invite the audience to reconsider the state of the decorative arts in the 1890s and the curiously complex state of James’s and Wilde's affairs.
Further information on the Conference from Kathleen Peck, Founder VISAWUS kpeck@alice.caltech.edu.
Christopher S. Nassaar (American University, Beirut) writes that he has published 'Mythic Demonic Creatures in Wilde's Salome' in The Explicator, volume 59, no. 3, spring 2001, pp. 132-134. In collaboration with Nataly Shaheen. 'The essay shows that Wilde, in his attempt to dramatize Salome as a symbol of pure evil, associated her not only with the vampire but also with the siren and the werewolf.'
Linda Pui-ling Wong (Hong Kong Baptist University) has published a review of Art & Society: A Consideration of the Relations between Aesthetic Theories and Social Commitment with Reference to Katherine Mansfield and Oscar Wilde, by Yukiko Kinoshita. The review is in Utopian Studies: Journal of The Society for Utopian Studies 12.1 (Aug. 2001):202-204.
Truly Wilde, the biography of Dorothy Wilde by Joan Schenkar, is now out in paperback (Virago).
2. Work in Progress
Mathilde Mazau (University of Caen) writes that she is beginning a doctoral thesis which will be a study of Wilde's correspondence, but also a study of those to whom he wrote. 'This should allow me to know more about his relationships. What I also want to do is to know more about what these people thought of Wilde.'
Jill Womack (TRYPS- Theater Reaching Young People & Schools) writes 'The Selfish Giant in a new adaptation will be premièred as a reading of the script and music on 1st October. I saw the film Wilde several years ago and was quite taken with the scene in which Oscar Wilde told the story to his young sons. I was familiar with "Giant", but had forgotten that he was the author. I re-read the story and knew immediately that it was a perfect fit for a children's musical. In March 2000, I worked with a young actor and playwright here in Columbia, Missouri, Russ Brown, who has written a number of original children's stories and plays, although he is as yet unpublished. I discussed the idea of adapting "Giant" with him. Two weeks later he called with a first draft and three finished songs.
'The script will be entered into the Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices competition this month. New Visions selects 6-8 scripts for workshop development in Washington D.C., scheduled for May 2002. Its purpose is to aid in the development of new works for children's theater. The play is set for a full production in December 2002. TRYPS (Theater Reaching Young People & Schools) will be the producing entity. The final draft of the script and music will be available at that time'
3. Oscar Wilde's Birthday
Bill Kaiser (One Institute, Los Angeles) writes 'Birthday celebration - this time on 13th October in the garden at One Institute & Archives where I am curator of the performing arts collection'
Donald Mead writes
'The Oscar Wilde Society has always celebrated Oscar's birthday in fine style, with a Birthday Dinner for its members at the Cadogan Hotel. The dinner is held at the weekend in October nearest Oscar's birthday (this year on Saturday 13th October) and the main restaurant is always filled to capacity.
'There is, of course, a toast to Oscar, and this is followed by a recitation of the John Betjeman poem The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel. The poem has great tragic resonance when recited as it were in situ, but it is also a particular pleasure to hear the lines:
Dear boy, pull again at the bell!
They are all little better than cretins,
Though this is the Cadogan Hotel.
'The Cadogan dining room staff are usually to be observed in the background, listening attentively...
'This year Lord Gawain Douglas will also recite poems by Lord Alfred Douglas, including The Dead Poet.
'Each year there is a distinguished speaker. In recent years these have included Sheridan Morley, Sir Donald Sinden, Jonathan Fryer, Sir John Mortimer, and Anthony Holden. In 2001 the speaker will be Patrick Garland and a most entertaining and informative talk is in prospect.
There are souvenir menus linked to the anniversary.'
For details of membership of the Oscar Wilde Society, see below.
· We should like to know of any commemorations taking place on or around 30th November.
4. Wilde on the Curriculum
Peter Schmidt (Swarthmore College) writes 'Here's what I'm doing of Wilde's this semester in my classes. The relevant course is an introductory English literature course entitled Portraits of the Artist. It has 25 students, mostly first-year students, and is primarily discussion. The Wilde materials students will read later this Fall: Some Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated, The Critic as Artist, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.'
5. Picked from the Platter
The notice advertising THE OSCHOLARS that Claudia Letat placed on the notice board of her website 'Oscar Wilde- Ode an ein Genie' http://www.besuche-Oscar-Wilde.de (see THE OSCHOLARS 1/4) now has a 'button' which when clicked upon sends a request to THE OSCHOLARS for subscription. We are delighted with this generous action.
A link to THE OSCHOLARS has also been kindly placed by Mark Samuels Lasner on the journals webpage http://www.1890s.org/lists.htm#journal of the 1890s Society, whose homepage is http://www.1890s.org.
We are very grateful for these and recommend the sites to the notice of our readers.
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III. NEWS FROM ELSEWHERE
1. Exhibition: Oscar Wilde: A Life in Six Acts
This important exhibition at the Morgan Library, New York, is now open. The exhibition was organized by the British Library, and the New York presentation is organized in association with the Morgan Library and sponsored by The Fay Elliott Foundation. It has an excellent website at
http://www.morganlibrary.org/exhibtions/current/html/main.html.
Associated with it are a Conference (see below)and a number of other events:
The Ken Russell Salome's Last Dance is being shown on 5th October.
The Albert Lewin Picture of Dorian Gray and the Oliver Parker Ideal Husband are being shown on the 12th October.
Robert Parkes (Robert H. Taylor Curator, Literary and Historical Manuscripts, Morgan Library) and Christine Nelson (Curator Literary and Historical Manuscripts, Morgan Library) are giving lecture 'Collection in Focus: Wilde' on 17th October
The Ken Hughes Trials of Oscar Wilde and the Ernst Lubitsch Lady Windermere's Fan are being shown on the 19th October.
Deborah Evetts (Drue Heinz Book Conservator, Morgan Library) is giving a Workshop Demonstration 'Oscar Wilde: Binding and Execution' on 24th October.
Sally Brown (Curator of Modern Literary Manuscripts, British Library) is giving a lecture on 'Constance Wilde, A Woman of Some Importance' on 26th October.
Brian Bedford (actor), Jeffrey Lentz (tenor) and Brian Zeger (piano) are giving a recital 'Lyrics and Lilies: Songs and Words of Oscar Wilde' on 21st October.
Merlin Holland with Brian Bedford presents 'Ever Yours, Oscar' on 9th November.
Marin Alsop (artistic director and conductor) with members of the Concordia Orchestra presents 'Portrait of Oscar Wilde' on 11th November.
· Information kindly supplied by Mark Samuels Lasner.
2. Broadcast
The BBC (Radio 4) are broadcasting a selection of Wilde's letters during the week 8th to 12th October, NOT, as originally intended, from the 15th to the 19th. It will be called 'The Unexpected Wilde' and be transmitted each weekday at 9.45 a.m. as Book of the Week, though even this may change if Parliament is recalled. The letters are read by Simon Callow, the links written and read by Merlin Holland. The late-night daily repeats are at 12.30 a.m. (London time). Why the change? Mr Holland ironically suggests that 'on the Wednesday there is cricket at 9.45 on LW and so the daily service has to be moved to FM and on Wednesday the book of that week can only be heard on the repeat slot at 12.30 a.m. I suspect that Oscar's remarks on religion and cricket have just come back to haunt him!'
But perhaps it is Kipling's flannelled fools who are having their revenge?
Radio 4 is at 92.5 FM and 198 long wave. John Cooper adds 'Note also BBC Radio 4 is available on the Internet at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ for those outside the UK - not forgetting to make appropriate adjusted for time zones!'
3. Conference: 'Oscar Wilde in His Times and Ours'
This conference is going ahead at The Morgan Library, New York, Friday and Saturday, 26th and 27th October, in association with the exhibition 'Oscar Wilde: A Life in Six Acts'. The programme is to be found in THE OSCHOLARS I.4.
4. Conference Panel: Oscar and Willie and Jane - Second Call for Papers.
It is proposed to have a panel on the three Wildes and their journalistic work at the Conference 'Places of Exchange: Magazines, Journals and Newspapers in British and Irish Culture 1688-1945', University of Glasgow 25th to 27th July, 2002. http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/SESLL/EngLit/news_files/call01.html
Papers should be twenty minutes in duration. Contact Alison Chapman A.Chapman@englit.arts.gla.ac.uk.
5. The Oscar Wilde Autumn School
This is usually held in October in Bray, Co Wicklow, but at time of going to press, its website http://www.braychamber.com/oscar_wilde.htm only gives last year’s programme. Readers may care to check this site for themselves in case it is updated.
6. Publications
Oscar Wilde, A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford and The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde by Joseph Pearce have now been published in paperback. The UK publishers are, respectively, Bloomsbury and HarperCollins.
The September issue of The Magdalen College Record contains an article by Peter Vernier concerning a recent discovery in the Bodleian Library of a menu card for a dinner at which Wilde proposes the toast of the College Boat Club in 1878, an unexpected appearance by Wilde in the midst of the 'hearties'.
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IV. CALLS FOR PAPERS WHICH MAY HAVE A BEARING ON WILDE
(Any specific papers on Wilde will be noted in future issues of THE OSCHOLARS)
1. CALL FOR PAPERS: Queeries, An Irish Journal Of Queer Studies
We are pleased to announce the establishment of the first ever Irish Queer studies journal in print, entitled Queeries: An Irish Journal of Queer Studies. It will be multidisciplinary and international in its scope although all submissions should be in English or Irish. The first edition will be an open one but it is hoped in thefuture to have calls, which will address particular themes. The journal, which will be peer reviewed, is co-edited by Noreen Giffney (Department of Medieval History, University College, Dublin) and Michael O'Rourke (Department of Modern English and American Literature, University College, Dublin),with an editorial board drawn from the United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Central Europe, and Australia. Areas covered will include literature, history, classics, music, history of art, archaeology, modern languages, film, law to name a few. Volume I will be launched in Dublin in Winter 2002. Paper titles and abstracts of 200-300 words should be submitted on or before Friday 1 February 2002. Articles of 5,000-7,000 words will then be due for submission on or before Friday 2 August 2002.
For further
information and a copy of the rules for contributors please contact the editors
at the following address: Michael O'Rourke and Noreen Giffney, c/o
WERRC, Arts Annexe Building, University College, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Tel: +353-1-716 8297/8451.
E-mail: irishqueerstudiesjournal@yahoo.ie
2. CALL FOR PAPERS: Looking Backward, Looking Forward
The 22nd Annual Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference, Savannah, Georgia 7th to 9th March 2002
Edward Bellamy's ironically titled 1888 utopian novel, Looking Backward, 2000-1887, is just one example of nineteenth-century culture’s obsession with the future, the past, and its own place in history. While the early and middle years of the century brought forth a spate of historical works, the closing years of the century saw an impressive number of visionary works that seemed to reach forward into the future. Throughout the period, novelists, poets, historians, painters, composers, philosophers, and scientists attempted to assess the impact of the past on their own century while looking forward to a future enlightened by their efforts to change the world around them.
We invite explorations of any aspect of this nineteenth-century predilection for 'Looking Backward, Looking Forward'. Examples abound of the power of the past during this period: literary, visual, and musical artists who turned to the past for inspiration, architects who resurrected ancient and medieval styles, historians who felt the need to chronicle the past, scientists who sought to uncover the mysteries of the human and geologic past, and social scientists who looked to the 'primitive' past for a better understanding of human culture. The power of the future enraptured many as well with the promise of unprecedented prosperity and creativity through new technologies, new means of seeing, and new ways of understanding the universe. Those who looked forward often envisioned a better, more equitable world, although others painted a dystopic vision of the future. In addition, the works of many nineteenth-century artists, writers, scientists, political economists, and philosophers seem to anticipate the twentieth century in ways that have only become more clear with time.
While the conference theme encourages interdisciplinary inquiry into common issues and topics, NCSA also encourages the sharing of the best of current research and scholarship on nineteenth-century topics, even when less directly linked to a given year's conference theme. Therefore, proposals on other topics for open sessions are also welcome. As always, but especially applicable for this conference theme, proposals will be considered that incorporate the 'long 19th century' — that is, up to the advent of World War I.
Proposals of one page, single-spaced, for twenty-minute papers should be sent to the Conference Program Director and be accompanied by a cover letter and a 1-2 page c.v. Proposals for a 11/2 hour panel should include a cover letter from the panel organizer, indicating format and issues to be discussed, and be accompanied by a one-page proposal and 1-2 pg. c.v. from each participant.
You may e-mail or mail paper or session proposals/ c.v. only to the Conference Program Director, Professor Janice Simon, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602; jsimon@arches.uga.edu. For consideration, proposals should be postmarked by 15th October 2001. Decisions will be announced in December 2001.
You may e-mail general queries regarding the conference plans in Savannah to the Local Arrangements Director, Professor Robert Craig robert.craig@arch.gatech.edu.
3. CALL FOR PAPERS: Philosophical Aesthetics (e-journal)
From Peter Mahr mahr@h2hobel.phl.univie.ac.at.
'The online philosophical aesthetics quarterly mahr's vierteljahrsschrift fuer aesthetik
http://h2hobel.phl.univie.ac.at/mahr'svierteljahrs located on a server at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna will be relaunched. Beginning with its September 2001 edition (due to appear at the end of the month), mahr's vierteljahrs schrift fuer aesthetik will serve as a platform for announcements and internet information in the field of philosophical aesthetics.
'I welcome information about - conferences, lectures, seminars, research projects as well as contributions for books, journals etc. - publications in print or presented in the internet.
'Requirements: - e-mails without attachments- contents with at least 75% philosophical aesthetics - German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese - arrival of mails at the edition's month beginning - information name of organizer/performer(s), title(s),time(s) and place(s) of event(s)
'All announcements for future events belonging a certain three month span (for instance a September edition for October, November and December) will remain online (become "documentary" after events took place) and may be completed for forthcoming editions. All information presented will remain online in future editions. Information on internet publications will be listed under the heading "Rhizography" - extending, translating (my accompanying notes into English) and updating what is already online with
http://h2hobel.phl.univie.ac.at/mahr'svierteljahrs/001f4-03.html
http://h2hobel.phl.univie.ac.at/mahr'svierteljahrs/002f4-04.html
http://h2hobel.phl.univie.ac.at/mahr'svierteljahrs/003f4-04.html
'If you want an URL (not the document) included, send it to mahr@h2hobel.phl.univie.ac.at
'I will reserve the right to edit sent material. And I will add to each number a thing or two of my own, that is an interview, an index, a list of titles.'
Peter Mahr mahr@h2hobel.phl.univie.ac.at
4. CALL FOR PAPERS: Now That Whitman's Gay...Teaching the Old Canon from a New Perspective
From: Phyllis Betz liddisb@snip.net. 'I would like to post the following panel - part of the April 2002 NEMLA convention in Toronto. 'Now That Whitman's Gay and Cather's a Lesbian: Teaching the Old Canon from a New Perspective'. Chair: Phyllis M. Betz. The panel intends to raise questions and suggest answers about teaching major 19th and early 20th century authors, whose sexuality is no longer challenged, in the contemporary classroom. Submissions maybe sent to English Department, LaSalle University, 1900 West Olney Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19141 Phone: 21-951-1171 E-mail: betz@lasalle.edu.’
5. CALL FOR PAPERS: 2002 Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies
The Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies (PCCBS) will hold its twenty-ninth annual meeting at Pomona College at the Claremont Colleges on 5th to 7th April 2002. Prospective participants are encouraged to submit proposals for panels or papers on any aspect of British history, literature, politics or culture by mail by Friday, 30th November 2001 to: Mary Robertson, PCCBS Program Chair, The Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California 91108 Phone 626-405-2204 Fax / e-mail: mrobertson@huntington.org. All proposals should include a brief proposal of the paper, a short curriculum vitae, and current contact information, i.e. address, telephone number and email address. Please post proposals by mail as proposals e-mailed or faxed will not be considered.
6. CALL FOR PAPERS: Film Adaptation
Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Associations Annual Meeting Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque Hilton 13th to 17th February, 2002.
Proposal Deadline: 15th November 2001.
Abstracts and proposals are currently being accepted for the Film Adaptation area of the 2002 SW/TX PCA/ACA conference, which will be held once again in Albuquerque.
Papers on any aspect of film adaptation are welcome. Presentations will be 20 minutes in length, and AV equipment will be made available (use of which is encouraged).
Topics include (but are not limited to):
Short story adaptations; Novel adaptations; Nonfiction adaptations; Drama (excluding Shakespeare) adaptations; Film-to-film adaptations; American film adaptations; British film adaptations; World film adaptations; Film adaptation theories.
Proposals (250-500 words) and inquiries should be addressed to Lynnea Chapman King, Department of English, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1773 lynneaking@hotmail.com.
7. CALL FOR PAPERS: Henry James and the Lost Generation
(Paris, 5th - 8th July, 2002)
Conference papers sought on Henry James and the expatriate writers of the Lost Generation, for a panel to be proposed for the International Conference of the Henry James Society, 5th-8th July, 2002. The conference will be held at the American University of Paris.
Henry James was a kind of proto-modernist, both in his commitment to a highly crafted, self-conscious mode of writing and in his struggle to balance the claims of literary and cultural tradition with the facts of modern life. His belief that the American scene was in some way inimical to the production and appreciation of art had a special resonance for American modernists.
How did later American expatriates - T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Djuna Barnes, Ernest Hemingway, and others - respond to James's example, in their work and in their lives as writers? How did his legacy inspire, influence, challenge and disturb them? What does the familiar story of the Lost Generation owe to James's romance of the American abroad?
Papers which deal with Paris, as setting and subject, are especially welcome.
Please send 500-word abstract and 2-page CV by 1st November to:
Heather O'Donnell, Princeton Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, Joseph Henry House, Princeton NJ 08544 odonnell@princeton.edu.
8. CALL FOR PAPERS: The Sacred and the Profane
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 15th November 2001
The Arizona State University Graduate Scholars of English Association (GSEA) and the Department of English are pleased to sponsor the tenth annual Southwest Graduate Literature Symposium, 22nd to 24th March 2002, at Arizona State University in Tempe.
The conference entitled 'The Sacred and the Profane' invites you to submit papers that explore the ways in which sacred and profane, reverent and irreverent, or venerated and taboo ideas, beliefs, or cultural practices are represented within the fields of literature, creative writing, language, theater, film, or popular culture. Panel submissions are encouraged.
Because the theme of the conference is inclusive and interdisciplinary, the following list of questions is one way to begin thinking about how the theme may apply to your own work. The questions are meant to motivate, but not limit, your thinking.
v How do we define the sacred and the profane?
v How can we interpret a text as sacred or profane in a religious context? A secular context?
v How do the sacred and profane interact, overlap, and inform each other?
v Given the different cultural, social, racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual backgrounds of different readers, how do different groups of readers approach the same text within the context of ideas about the sacred and the profane?
v How have our ideas about what is sacred and what is profane been transformed by history, cultures, philosophies, or genres?
v Who defines what is sacred and profane? Who implements censorship and who pushes the boundaries of what is considered appropriate and what is not? Why? How?
v What is the relationship between canonical and popular literature/art/culture and how do we interpret that relationship? What does it mean to be a 'saint'? A 'sinner'?
v What is the relationship between a social sense of the sacred and the profane versus an artistic one?
HOW TO SUBMIT: Please submit a one-page blind proposal, in triplicate, by post, email or fax (listed below) by 15th November 2001. Your proposal should be accompanied by a cover sheet clearly indicating your name, address, phone number, email address, institution, and title of proposal. Please direct all proposals or correspondence to: 2001 Southwest Graduate Literature Symposium, Department of English, Arizona State University, Box 870302, Tempe AZ 85287-0302 Fax: (602) 965-3451 email: SWSYMPOSIUM@asu.edu.
Web Address: http://www.asu.edu/studentprgms/orgs/gsea/sw/sw.html.
9. CALL FOR PAPERS: The Erotic Empire: Sexuality, Gender & Power in Britain & Beyond
(Adelaide, 30th January to 2nd February 2001)
Australasian Victorian Studies Association conference sponsored by Adelaide University and the Adelaide Research Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences.
AVSA is an interdisciplinary organisation- papers dealing with any aspect of Victorian culture relating to our theme will be welcomed. Prospective participants are encouraged to consider the following subject ideas:
race relations and fears of miscegenation; bending gender boundaries; gender and narrative; desire and Orientalism; death and the erotic; inverts, decadents and obscenity; science and racial, gender and sexual categories; sexual traffic; colonialism and women; empire and masculinities; sport, empire and gender.
Please submit abstracts (200 words max) as email attachments (preferably Word 7/97 or earlier) to Mandy Treagus at mandy.treagus@adelaide.edu.au.
INCLUDED OUT OF INTEREST - DEADLINE END SEPTEMBER - AND FOR THE SAKE OF THE HOMAGE TO THE YELLOW BOOK.
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V. NOTES AND QUERIES
1. Sourcing a Wilde quotation
Erika Wolf (University of Rochester) asks for a precise source (as early and as authentic as possible) for Wilde's attributed comment 'Rugby is all very well. A good game for rough girls, but not for delicate boys'. ewlf@mail.rochester.edu.
v We will be pleased to print variora from primary sources
2. More Adey
Michael Seeney writes 'More Adey went up to Keble College, Oxford in 1876. In 1879 he converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1881 he is listed in Alumni Oxoniensis as having taken his BA as an "unsupported student"; similarly he gained his MA in 1883 as an "unsupported student". Neither the Librarian nor the Chaplain of Keble are able to tell me whether his unsupported nature is directly related to his conversion as I suspect, or, indeed, what “unsupported” meant. Can anyone tell me the meaning of the expression and whether it would have followed on from conversion.'
3. Aubrey Beardsley
For a catalogue raisonné of the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), to be published by Yale University Press, I would be grateful to know the location of drawings. If you are a museum curator, librarian, private collector, book seller, or print dealer with whom I have not already been in contact, please contact me. All correspondence and names of owners will remain confidential. Please write or fax to the following address:
Professor Linda G. Zatlin, 1735 Peachtree Street, NE, Atlanta, GA 30309 USA. Fax: (404) 815-5528
4. Dion Boucicault
Deirdre McFeely (Birkbeck College, University of London) writes to ask if anybody is doing any work on (or with any interest in) Boucicault?
5. Henry Arthur Jones
In THE OSCHOLARS I/4 we asked if anyone has worked on Jones' play The Triumph of the Philistines or How Mr Jorgan Protected the Morals of Market Pewsbury under Very Trying Circumstance, its genesis and reception. Donald Mead (editor, The Wildean) writes
There is an interesting article in The Wildean No. 11 (July 1997) by Michael Seeney, entitled ‘The Last First Night and The Triumph of the Philistines’. He remarks that The Triumph of the Philistines is undeniably not a good play, and quotes William Archer's first review of it, in The World, from which the following are just two of Archer's less unkind comments:
". . . I shall have no difficulty in keeping my feet from straying in the direction of the St James's Theatre during the run . . . it is such a gloriously ill-made play. There is not a rule of orthodox construction, there is scarcely a canon of mere common-sense, that it does not openly outrage."
Of the cast of The Importance of Being Earnest, all of whom had had their employment rather brusquely terminated a few days before, only two found parts in The Triumph. George Alexander played the lead, Sir Valentine Fellowes, and H.H. Vincent (Canon Chasuble) played Mr Wapes.
Michael Seeney goes on to consider in detail passages from the play which with hindsight, might be thought to hint at the off-stage dramas in May 1895. He quotes a second unfavourable review by Archer and one by Shaw, and concludes with Jones’s rueful comments about the play and its reception, and his acceptance of the judgements of the critics.
All this, and the concluding irony that Wilde was widely thought to have been the author of another of Henry Arthur Jones's plays, makes a very good story.
v Copies of The Wildean 11 (and of other back issues) are available from the Editor, (see below).
6. Oscar Wilson
Does anybody know anything about this Edwardian illustrator?
7. The Hôtel Marsollier
Our general focus on the Hôtel d'Alsace (now L'Hôtel - see THE OSCHOLARS I/1) sometimes obscures us to the Hôtel Marsollier, 13 rue Marsollier, where Wilde stayed in May 1899. Now called the Hôtel Louvre Marsollier Opéra, it has undergone a similar transformation. Next May a single standard room will cost 701.87 francs or 107 euros a night (about £70.00). Although nobody in Wilde's position (or, for matter of that, the position of the editor of THE OSCHOLARS, could now contemplate staying there, it has not forgotten its former guest, though what he would have made of its brochure is open to speculation:
Our facilities include a fully equipped bathroom (bath or shower, WC and hair dryer), direct dial phone, minibar, satellite television (CNN, Eurosport, TVE, RAI, JSTV…), radio, individual safety box. All the bedrooms are air-conditioned. Early in the morning, after a restful night's sleep, a copious breakfast will be served either in your bedroom or in a convivial room. Located in a calm street in the centre of a prestigious neighbourhood, the HOTEL LOUVRE MARSOLLIER OPERA, a stylish hotel where Oscar WILDE lived in 1899, promises a successful Parisian stay.
This is offered in French, German and Spanish as well as English.
The Hôtel de Nice, at 42 bis, rue de Rivoli, is NOT the hotel of that name in which Wilde stayed in February 1898. That Hôtel de Nice was in the rue des Beaux-Arts.
8. Notes towards an Iconography of Wilde
There is a picture of the Epstein tomb on the back cover of Judi Culbertson and Tom Randall: Permanent Parisians An Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of Paris. London: Robson Books 2000
9. Oscar in Popular Culture
The Sebor Absinthe Wilde Mule cocktail and the Oscar Wilde Mild beer featured in THE OSCHOLARS I/4 are not the only associations between the drinks industry and Wilde. In 1995 Perrier-Jouët Chamapagne ran a series of advertisements (at least in the English newspapers) with the letterpress
When Oscar Wilde called for the champagne waiter, he was only after one thing. Exquisite, decadent, sensual and frivolous. Like Oscar Wilde, Perrier-Jouët is all these things. The most sought-after champagne of the naughty 1890s (in a good year we gleefully sank a million bottles), its elegant chardonnay character is equally at home in the 1990s. In fact, you never know when you might fancy it (as Oscar might have said).
Maintaining an alcoholic note, there is the 'Oscar Wilde', an Irish pub at 38 rue Bourdonnais in Paris and the 'Wilde Irish Pub', Vallikraavi 4, Tartu, Estonia. News of other pubs named for Wilde will be welcome.
10. Wilde as Unpopular Culture
An occasional anthology of hostile criticism.
'There was an enormous amount of playwriting in this country between the last flicker of Byron's punning and the first flicker of the intellectual drama. There was Oscar Wilde, first-rate wit and man of the theatre, second-rate poet and tenth-rate everything else. As a dramatist Wilde was like an architect who should be so highly absorbed in his ornamentation that he forgot his constructions; there was no play of his which could not have fallen down if he had not relied upon some older builder to put its bricks together for him. His plots are hoary with the dexterity of previous generations'.
- James Agate (ed.): Those Were the Nights, An Anthology of Criticism 1880-1896. London: Hutchinson n.d. pp.51-2
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VI. PRODUCTIONS DURING OCTOBER 2001
Salome will be performed by the Kirov Opera Company, conducted by Valery Gergiev, at the Melbourne Festival, 13th & 15th October.
Originally directed in St Petersburg by David Freeman; remounted in Melbourne by Yuri Laptov. Designer Dan Potra. Conductor 14th October 2 pm Mikhail Sinkevitch/
Canada
The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Susan Ferley, is at the Globe Theatre, Regina, Canada, to 10th October.
England
The Importance of Being Earnest will be at the Gateway Theatre, Chester, 5th to 13th October, and at the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, Cumbria 30th October to 4th November. This is the Lipservice Theatre Company production directed by Lawrence Till.
Patience will be at the Poole Arts Centre (and Towngate Theatre), Poole, Dorset, 23rd to 27th October, performedby the Bournemouth Gilbert and Sullivan Operatic Society
France
Zemlinsky's The Dwarf (Der Zwerg, from The Birthday of the Infanta) will be performed at the Paris Opéra (Palais Garnier) on the 24th, 28th and 31st October.
Germany
Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg and Eine florentinische Tragödie will be performed on 3rd October in the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe.
Ireland
The Happy Prince in a new adaptation is being produced especially to be premiered at this year's Dublin International Puppet Festival. This is at the Lambert Puppet Theatre, Monkstown, Dublin, using colourful shadow puppets produced in the Lamberts' own puppet workshop and designed by Wendy Shea. 29th October.
The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Dan Gordon, will be at The Lyric Theatre, Belfast 21st September to 10th October.
The Importance of Being Earnest will be staged by the Bangor Drama Club at the Studio Theatre, Bangor, Co Down, 12th and 13th & 16th to 20th October, their first Wilde production since Lady Windermere's Fan in 1985.
Switzerland
The Importance of being Earnest, produced in Swiss-German as Ärnscht Mues Me Syy, continues at the Theater Fauteuil in Basel with Peter Richner, Renato Salvi, Colette Studer, Claudia Federspiel, Colette Greder, Alice Farion, Urs Bosshar.
USA
The Happy Prince, Rose and the Nightingale [sic], and The Selfish Giant, directed by Walter R. Stump will be performed Main Stage, Russell Hall, Gorham, University of Southern Maine 5th October; and The Importance of being Wilde is also being staged at USM’s Russell Hall, 5th, 6th and 10th to 14th October. This is basically a history of Wilde's life interspersed with cuttings from his works. Professor Stump compiled the material and wrote the script.
A Century on Stage: from Shaw and Wilde to the present London Theatre Exchange is 'a dramatic portrait of a changing society'. A public question-and-answer session follows. Middlebury College Center for the Arts Concert Hall, Middlebury, Vermont 13th October.
- and for the record:
The Importance of Being Earnest as Hvemer Earnest, directed by Alexandra Myskova and designed by Katarzyna Kepinska, was produced at Den Nationale Scene, Bergen, Norway, in February 2001.
|
Gwendolen |
Ingrid
Bergstrøm |
|
Cecily |
Pascale Nielsen |
|
Algernon |
Teodor
Janson |
|
John |
Even Rasmussen |
|
Lady Bracknell |
Ragnhild Hiorthøy |
|
Lane |
Oddbjørn Hesjevoll |
Salome was at the Teatro Campoamor, Oviedo, Spain 17th to 20th and 23rd September 2001
The Tübingen Anglo-Irish Theatre Group production of An Ideal Husband took place from the 12th to the 15th February this year. Salomé played the following week, from the 19th to the 22nd. The programme notes and production details are available on their website www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/nes/taitg.htm
Claudia Letat has kindly sent us the Radio Times entry for the programme of Wilde broadcasts on BBC Knowledge, on the 28th July, on which we reported in THE OSCHOLARS I/4, and we reproduce it as a curiosity.
The BBC does maintain a small Wilde website at www.bbc.co.uk/knowledge/arts/wilde/ but it seems impossible to get advance notification of programmes. We regret we were unable to give notice of another BBC Knowledge Omnibus programme Oscar, when Michael Bracewell presented 'a provocative look at the life and legacy of Oscar Wilde, removing any shred of respectability by revealing him to be inspirational to generations of rockers'. This was broadcast on Monday 24th September, 08:00 - 08:50 and at other times.
· Contributions to this section of THE OSCHOLARS from anywhere in the world will be very welcome indeed.
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VII. WEB FOOT NOTES
A monthly look at websites (contributions welcome).
Eva Thienpont's website "Mr O.W." [recommended in THE OSCHOLARS I/3] has now been redesigned: http://users.belgacom.net/wilde
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/oscarspanthers is a discussion group for 'Oscar's gay fans', founded anonymously in November 2000. It has eight members (two of whom are not gay) and six messages.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/6952/frameset.htm takes one to a site titled 'Welcome to Eccentricity at Its Best: Oscar Wilde!' devised by a woman (pictured but name not given) describing herself as 'a freshman at Randolph-Macon Woman's College double majoring in International Studies and Communications'. The site does not contain much information, and also seems to contain the owner's private diary.
http://home.att.net/~smerela/giant1.html maintained by Donnis Coleman is an illustrated edition of The Selfish Giant, and probably the best version of this to appear on the web.
http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/wilde/speranza.html contains works by Speranza transcribed and encoded by Carolyn C. Sherayko and edited by Perry Willett as part of the Victorian Women Writers Project.
http://www.fau.edu/solomon/ is the address of a new Simeon Solomon Research Archive maintained by Roberto Ferrari of Florida Atlantic University's Wimberly Library and editor of a recent annotated bibliography on Solomon. This is a continuing scholarly project that will gradually include more annotations, full-text documents, digital images, and a brief biography of Solomon. An important and professional site.
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VIII. SOME SELL AND OTHERS BUY
Books in print mentioned in THE OSCHOLARS can be ordered from:
John Wyse Jackson at Sandoe Books books@jsandoe.demon.co.uk.
· John Wyse Jackson is editor of Aristotle at Afternoon Tea: The Rare Oscar Wilde. London: Fourth Estate 1991; paperback edition retitled Uncollected Oscar Wilde 1995.
Oscar Wilde Buchhandlung und Versand at Alte Gasse 51, 60313 Frankfurt Tel.: 069/28 12 60 Fax:069/297 75 42. Contact Harald. Internet: http://www.oscar-wilde.de; e-mail: shop@oscar-wilde.de.
Dorian Bookstore, 802 Elm at Madison, Youngstown, Ohio 44505-2843. Contact Jack Peterson. Internet: http://alt.youngstown.org/dorian.htm; e-mail: dorianbooks@cboss.com
The Oscar Wilde Book Shop, 15 Christopher Street, New York, NY 10014. wildebooks@aol.com
Ebay is an online auction house where many Wilde items are offered, from second-hand paperbacks to playbills to limited editions. We have set up this link which should take you straight to ebay's Wilde pages:
A programme of the first New York production of Lady Windermere's Fan attracted a top bid of $54.00 on 8th September but there was only one bid (US $14.99 approx. £10.29) for the Ballad and there were no bids at all for the John Vassos Salome.
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IX. A WILDE OCTOBER
October saw the arrival into the world of a number of people whose lives touched (and in some cases such as Rimbaud's, failed to touch) Wilde's, apart of course from himself on the 16th and Lord Alfred Douglas on the 22nd (1871).
|
03 |
10 |
1858 |
Birth of Eleanora Duse |
|
05 |
10 |
1864 |
Birth of Maud Holt (Lady Tree) |
|
05 |
10 |
1885 |
Birth of Ida Rubinstein |
|
09 |
10 |
1859 |
Birth of Alfred Dreyfus |
|
14 |
10 |
1871 |
Birth of Alexander von Zemlinsky |
|
20 |
10 |
1854 |
Birth of Arthur Rimbaud |
|
23 |
10 |
1844 |
Birth of Sarah Bernhardt |
|
24 |
10 |
1868 |
Birth of Charles Conder |
|
28 |
10 |
1818 |
Birth of Turgenev |
but October also would have us almost perpetually in garb of woe, as the following table suggests:
|
03 |
10 |
1896 |
Death of William Morris |
|
04 |
10 |
1902 |
Death of Lionel Johnson |
|
05 |
10 |
1918 |
Death of Robert Ross |
|
06 |
10 |
1891 |
Death of Charles Stewart Parnell |
|
07 |
10 |
1896 |
Death of George du Maurier |
|
07 |
10 |
1922 |
Death of Lily Texeira de Mattos |
|
10 |
10 |
1922 |
Death of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt |
|
10 |
10 |
1967 |
Death of Vyvyan Holland |
|
13 |
10 |
1905 |
Death of Sir Henry Irving |
|
14 |
10 |
1976 |
Death of Edith Evans |
|
19 |
10 |
1894 |
Death of Lord Drumlanrig |
|
20 |
10 |
1913 |
Death of Charles Brookfield |
|
22 |
10 |
1935 |
Death of Edward Carson |
|
23 |
10 |
1872 |
Death of Théophile Gautier |
|
28 |
10 |
1900 |
Death of Friedrich Max Müller |
|
30 |
10 |
1935 |
Death of Sibell Dowager Marchioness of Queensberry |
|
30 |
10 |
1824 |
Death of Charles Robert Maturin |
|
31 |
10 |
1943 |
Death of Max Reinhardt |
Wilde's own calendar for the month (America excepted) is as follows. Additions and corrections as always welcome.
|
|
10 |
1879 |
Wilde visits Oscar Browning in Cambridge. |
|
|
10 |
1888 |
Wilde proposed but not accepted for the Savile Club. |
|
|
10 |
1889 |
Wilde gives up the editorship of 'Woman’s World'. |
|
|
10 |
1889 |
Publication of Constance Wilde's 'There Was Once'. |
|
|
10 |
1893 |
Wilde takes rooms at 10 an d11 St. James’s Place and writes 'An Ideal Husband' there. |
|
|
10 |
1894 |
Wilde at Brighton with Lord Alfred Douglas. |
|
01 |
10 |
1881 |
Wilde sends telegram to Colonel Morse accepting the U.S. lecture tour. |
|
02 |
10 |
1872 |
Wilde gives 'Selected Poems of Matthew Arnold' to Helena Sickert. |
|
09 |
10 |
1891 |
Wilde at first night of Zola's 'Thérèse Raquin' at the Royalty Theatre. |
|
10 |
10 |
1871 |
Wilde goes up to Trinity College Dublin, with rooms at 18 Botany Bay [to 1874]. |
|
10 |
10 |
1900 |
Wilde's operation. |
|
11 |
10 |
1883 |
Wilde among those who see Irving and Ellen Terry off to the USA on the Britannic for their first American tour |
|
14 |
10 |
1884 |
Publication of Wilde's 'Woman's Dress' in The Pall Mall Gazette. |
|
15 |
10 |
1893 |
Wilde dines at the Savoy with George Ives and (perhaps) Raffalovich and Sir Egbert Sebright. |
|
15 |
10 |
1897 |
Wilde visits Capri with Lord Alfred Douglas. |
|
16 |
10 |
1954 |
Sir Compton Mackenzie (Magdalen 1901-1904 )unveils plaque on Wilde's house in Tite Street. |
|
16 |
10 |
1891 |
Wilde lunches with William Heinemann. |
|
17 |
10 |
1874 |
Wilde goes up to Magdalen College, Oxford. |
|
22 |
10 |
1882 |
Wilde gives an interview to the 'New York World'. |
|
17 |
10 |
1900 |
Robert Ross arrives in Paris and visits Wilde. |
|
18 |
10 |
1897 |
Wilde leaves Capri. |
|
19 |
10 |
1893 |
Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas are guests of George Ives. |
|
20 |
10 |
1900 |
Wedding of Lily Wilde and Alexander Texeira de Mattos. |
|
25 |
10 |
1900 |
First night of 'Mr & Mrs Daventry'. Alec Ross and Lily Texeira de Mattos visit Wilde. |
|
27 |
10 |
1891 |
Wilde breakfasts with Wilfrid Blunt, George Curzon and Willy Peel in Paris. |
|
29 |
10 |
1877 |
Mr Gladstone writes to Lady Wilde. |
|
31 |
10 |
1875 |
Wilde and Bodley breakfast at the Mitre and go on to Wilde's rooms. |
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X. THE OSCAR WILDE SOCIETY AND THE WILDEAN
THE OSCHOLARS continues its association with the Oscar Wilde Society and its journal The Wildean. THE OSCHOLARS publishes the Table of Contents for each new issue of The Wildean. When there is no new issue, Tables of Contents from earlier issues are published until the whole set will have been detailed. This month we publish the Table of Contents for No.15 (July 1999). Contacts for both the Society and The Wildean are given below.
The Oscar Wilde Society is a literary society devoted to the congenial appreciation of Oscar Wilde. It is a non-profitmaking organisation which aims to promote knowledge, appreciation and study of Wilde’s life, personality and works. It organises lectures, readings and discussions, visits to places in Great Britain and overseas associated with Wilde, an annual lunch in Oxford, and an annual Birthday Dinner at the Cadogan Hotel, London. New members are very welcome. The current annual individual subscription (UK) is £14 and household membership £20.
A newsletter - Intentions -is published about six times a year and gives information on forthcoming events, performances and publications, and reports on Society activities. The Society’s journal - The Wildean -is published twice a year and contains features on a variety of subjects relating to Wilde, including articles, reviews, and accounts of Society events. It is a publication of permanent interest (MLA listed and indexed)and copies of all recent back issues are available at cover price, which includes postage in the UK.
Details of membership of the Society may be obtained from Vanessa Harris, the Hon. Secretary (see below).
Previous issues of The Wildean arestill available at cover price - details from Donald Mead (see below)
Here is the information from the Editor of The Wildean about issue No.15 (July 1999).
John Stratford, who is currently compiling material for an annotated bibliography of the published works of Lord Alfred Douglas, has drawn on the memories of people he has met who knew Bosie, and writes on 'Bosie and Oscar: Lord Alfred Douglas after Wilde.' He suggests that the accepted story - 'that Wilde shall be the martyr, Ross the saint and Douglas the evil cause of the catastrophe'- should be questioned.
In 'Spectres of Wilde' Daniel Novak, remarking that 'whether armed with a ouija-board or a camera, whether at a séance or a screening, the tender art of representing Wilde is always haunted by the black art of conjuring his ghost', goes on to review Hallmark Entertainment's The Canterville Ghost in discursive fashion. 'Inescapably possessed by and with the spectres of Wilde, the burden of our spectral inheritance lies less in the labour of mourning than in the more difficult process of learning to live with untimely spirits.'
In The Wildean 13, Peter Vernier made a scholarly analysis of Oscar's responses to the 'Mental Photograph' questionnaire. In The Wildean 15 he adds much fascinating detail about some of the answers. He also identifies another contributor to the Mental Photograph album, Barton McGuckin, a Dubliner, who, like Oscar, made his entries in the album at Clonfin House in September 1877.
The issue contains a sketch of Oscar lecturing at Bradford early in 1884 which Geoff Dibb has unearthed from the Bradford Daily Telegraph. Robin Darwall-Smith describes how University College, Oxford became the owners of the Robert Ross Memorial Collection (which is in the Bodleian Library). There are also a number of reviews of books and accounts of out-of-the-way theatrical productions.
|
Articles |
|
|
Bosie And Oscar: Lord Alfred Douglas After Wilde. |
John Stratford |
|
Spectres Of Wilde - Hallmark Entertainment's The Canterville Ghost. |
Daniel Novak |
|
The Story of The Robert Ross Memorial Collection. |
Robin Darwall-Smith |
|
Oscar In Bradford. |
Geoff Dibb |
|
Oscar’s 'Mental Photograph' Revisited. |
Peter Vernier |
|
Reviews and Notices |
|
|
A Preface To Oscar Wilde by Anne Varty. |
Anya Clayworth |
|
English Literature and the Russian Aesthetic Renaissance by Rachel Polonsky. |
Anya Clayworth |
|
Henry James and Sexuality by Hugh Stevens. |
Anya Clayworth |
|
Oscar Wilde On Stage And Screen by Robert Tanitch. |
Michael Seeney |
|
The Importance of Being Earnest (Essential Theatre Company production). |
Michael Seeney |
|
Kicking Oscar’s Corpse (Broken Dream Theatre Company production). |
Michael Seeney |
|
Salomé by Neville Tranter (Stuffed Puppet Theatre). |
Michael Seeney |
|
The Oscar Wilde Society may be contacted by writing to the Hon. Secretary, Vanessa Harris 100 Peacock Street, Gravesend, Kent DA12 1EQ, England e-mail: vanessa@salome.co.uk The Wildean may be contacted by writing to its Editor, Donald Mead 63 Lambton Road, London, SW20 0LW, England. e-mail donmead@wildean.demon.co.uk |
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