Philosophy And Oscar Wilde

This book is the first collection of essays to discuss Oscar Wilde’s love and vast knowledge of philosophy. Over the past few decades, Oscar Wilde scholars have become increasingly aware of Wilde’s love and intimate knowledge of philosophy. Wilde’s “Oxford Notebooks” and his soon-to-be-published “Notebook on Philosophy” all point to Wilde not just as an aesthete, but also as a serious philosophical thinker. The aim of this collection is not to make the statement that Wilde was a philosopher, or that his works were philosophical tracts. Rather, it provides a space to explore any and all linkages between Wilde’s works and philosophical thought. Addressing a broad spectrum of philosophical matter, from classical philology to Daoism, ethics to aestheticism, this collection enriches the literature on Wilde and philosophy alike.

Brown (English, Boston U.) places Wilde in the continuum of continental philosophy from Kant and Schiller through Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to Benjamin and Adorno, discussing his conception of art, its meaning, and the contradictory relations between art and the sphere of the ethical everyday. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This unique edition includes: Biographical Summary to get to know the great character and life of Wilde. Introduction to his philosophy; a walkthrough to his works defining the most important concepts and formulating the necessary questions that will be answered. The keystone unabridged works of Oscar Wilde about his philosophy "The Art of Lying" (1889), "The Critic as Artist" (1891) and "The Soul of a Man"(1891). Complete Analysis and Discursion: to see his ideas clearly exposed and to contrast what Wilde claimed with other points of view, drawing a more panoramic and open view about this eternal discursion. First of all, what are æsthetics? The hallmark of a band led by Oscar Wilde who committed many whimsical extravagances? We present a comprehensive and complete view of the philosophy of art and life of Wilde, which will answer in his witty and stylish way fundamental questions as: "Is lying a fundamental principle of Art?," "Must there be a divorce between Ethics and Aesthetics?" And "Ought we, beneath the flowery mask of a borrowed smile, allow ourselves to be carried away by all the waves of instinct?" "I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."

A book that penetrates the surface of the Oscar Wilde mythos to uncover the radical politics that propelled his art.

Oscar Wilde is more than a name, more than an author. From precocious Oxford undergraduate to cause celebre of the West End of the 1890s, to infamous criminal, the proper name Wilde has become an event in the history of literature and culture. Taking Wilde seriously as a philosopher in his own right, Whiteley's groundbreaking book places his texts into their philosophical context in order to show how Wilde broke from his peers, and in particular from idealism, and challenges recent neo-historicist readings of Wilde which seem content to limit his irruptive power. Using the paradoxical concept of the simulacrum to resituate Wilde's work in relation to both his precursors and his contemporaries, Whiteley's study reads Wilde through Deleuze and postmodern philosophical commentary on the simulacrum. In a series of striking juxtapositions, Whiteley challenges us to rethink both Oscar Wilde's aesthetics and his philosophy, to take seriously both the man and the mask. His philosophy of masks is revealed to figure a truth of a different kind - the simulacra through which Wilde begins to develop and formulate a mature philosophy that constitutes an ethics of joy.

Including The Philosophy Of Dress by Oscar Wilde. The recent print version was the first this work had been for the first time it had been published in 128 Years, and in book form for the first time ever. Now this is the first ebook.The work now forms the centerpiece of this unique collection of Wilde's writings on dress. As a compendium this book also includes several rarely published period articles and letters by Wilde on dress and fashion, along with a related exchange of correspondence that forms an instructional discourse. In addition there are generously annotated and illustrated chapters that analyze the importance of dress in the historical context of the writing career of Oscar Wilde, and a comprehensive review of the influences, trends, characters and source material that informed the development of his dress philosophy.The whole constitutes a thorough examination of a previously overlooked aspect in the Wilde canon, which should prove to be of interest not only to Wildean scholars, but also to anyone who enjoys his style of writing. Oscar Wilde continues to be favorably reappraised as a one of the most culturally avant garde tastemakers of the late nineteenth century. In an ever fashion-conscious world it is fitting that the themes explored, like the author himself, are still relevant. In this respect the book will also be of historical value to fashion students, historians, and practitioners.

"A collection of essays by Oscar Wilde; 'The Decay of Lying: An Observation' (a Socratic dialogue between Vivian and Cyril, two characters named after his own sons); 'Pen, Pencil and Poison: A Study in Green'; 'The Critic as Artist' (deals with the nature of beauty, taste, and art); and, 'The Truth of Masks: A Note on Illusion'."

This text attempts to define Wilde's conceptions of what art is and is not, what the experience of art means, and the relations between the work of art and the sphere of the ethical everyday. It traces his thought from its resonance in his life through its development within aesthetic philosophy.