Oscar Wilde: the Art of Criticism and Notes on an Aesthetics in the Making

• Grant number: 22/09946-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: January 01, 2023
• End date: May 01, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Comparative Literature
• Principal Investigator: Laura Patricia Zuntini de Izarra
• Grantee: Fábio Waki
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/13064-9 - Oscar Wilde: the Art of Criticism and Notes on an Aesthetics in the Making, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

The goal of this research is to systematise the influence of the Classical culture on Oscar Wilde's critical theory, focusing on a point of interest for the literary studies still under-examined even in the most recent investigations about this author: namely, how his critical theory, by subverting the conception of impressionistic criticism that his precursors formulated based on the sculptural aesthetic temperament of Ancient Greek culture, challenges the ordinary idea of literary criticism as an interpretative process by reconceiving it as a creative one. Taking as reference Classical receptions in the works of Wilde's precursors-particularly Matthew Arnold, Walter Pater, and John Addington Symonds-, in his college notebooks-published and unpublished-, and in his essays of maturity, this research will clarify how his theory reformulates and radicalises fundamental precepts of British Aestheticism and how literature researchers today can employ it to carry out their investigations and to refine their own conceptions of art and literary criticisms. As it re-reads and reconnects works that inspired this critical theory and as it goes back to primary sources to clarify some of this theory's less conspicuous characteristics, this research will bring to Brazilian scholarship not only innovative perspectives about its context of emergence and its use to contemporary literary criticism and theory, but also never published transcriptions and translations of less known texts by its author, thereby contributing to an informed debate about the limits and potentialities of literary criticism today, as well as to an advancement of Irish and Wildean studies in the country.