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Major Authors: Oscar Wilde and the '90's >> Content Detail



Study Materials



Readings

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A number of readings may be downloaded from Project Gutenberg and other online sources. Links to Web sites containing film and artwork information are also included where available. And faculty notes to supplement the readings are listed in the table of readings by class session.

Required Texts

Amazon logo Gide, André. The Immoralist. New York: Dover, 1996. ISBN: 0486292371.

Amazon logo Housman, A. E. A Shropshire Lad. New York: Dover, 1990. ISBN: 0486264688. (download a version from Project Gutenberg)

Amazon logo Negri, Paul, ed. English Victorian Poetry. New York: Dover, 1999. ISBN: 0486404250.

Amazon logo Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. New York: Dover, 1994. ISBN: 0486282228. (download a version from Project Gutenberg)

Amazon logo Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. New York: Dover, 1992. ISBN: 0486270629. (download a version from Project Gutenberg)

Amazon logo Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. New York: Dover, 2001. ISBN: 0486416585. (download a version from Project Gutenberg)

Amazon logo Stoppard, Tom. The Invention of Love. New York: Grove/Atlantic, 1998. ISBN: 0802135811.

Amazon logo Stoppard, Tom. Travesties. New York: Grove/Atlantic, 1996. ISBN: 0802150896.

Amazon logo Kaufman, Moises. Gross Indecency. New York: Vintage, 1998. ISBN: 0413771709.

Amazon logo Wilde, Oscar. Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Washington, DC: Eagle hardcover, 2000. ISBN: 0007144350. (download versions of many of his works from Project Gutenberg)

Readings by Class Session


SES #TOPICS / READINGSNOTES
1Primary

Wilde. "The Selfish Giant." (download a version of this text from planetmonk.com)
In Class

We'll also read paintings by Burne-Jones ("King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," "Star of Bethlehem.") and Wm. Holman Hunt ("Light of the World", "Rienzi").

Extra evening class this week:
Wilde. DVD, 117 min. Columbia/Tristar, UK, 1997.

After this film, write a 2-page meditation on the film's attitude toward the relation of the life to the art. You may consider dimensions of class, of sexuality and/or its social or legal descriptions, of other cultural forces, of psychology. If you're stuck for a topic, consider why the film uses the Wilde story as its framing device.

We'll also read paintings by D. G. Rossetti ("The Girlhood of the Virgin Mary," "How they Met Themselves," and "Ecce Ancilla Domini"), and for reference read Buchanan, "The Fleshy School of Petry." (download versions of and commentary on these works from the Rossetti Archive)
2Primary

Housman, A. E. A Shropshire Lad. (download a version of this text from the University of Virginia Library)

Amazon logo Stoppard, Tom. The Invention of Love. New York: Grove Press, 1998. ISBN: 0802135811.

Poems

Browning. "My Last Duchess," "Mistress," "P's Lover." (download versions of these texts from Project Gutenberg)

Tennyson. "Idylls," "Ulysses." (download versions of these texts from Project Gutenberg)
In Class

We'll also read a painting, James M. Whistler's "Arrangement...": (known as "Whistler's "'Mother'"). (download a version of this work from artrenewal.org)

Factoids

Housman and A Shropshire Lad. (download a version of this text from the University of Virginia Library)

Ruskin and the Whistler trial.
3Primary

Wilde, Oscar. "Rocket." (download a version of this text from classicreader.com)

Ruskin, John. "Of Modern Landscape." Chapter 16 in Modern Painters. Vol. 3, part iv, 1856.

Poems About Art

Pater, Walter. Studies in the History of the Renaissance. 1st ed. 1873. Conclusion, pp. 207-10.

———. "Style." Fortnightly Review 50 (December 1888): 728-42.

Masson, David. "Pre-Raphaelitism in Art and Literature." British Quarterly Review 16 (August 1852): 197-220.

Poems

Rosetti, C. "Song," "Birthday," "Ladybird," "Remember." (download a version of this work from about.com)

Rosetti, D. G. "Woodspurge." (download a version of this work from the Univirsity of Virginia)

Swinburne, Algernon. "Leper." (download a version of this work from english-literature.org)

Tennyson. "Lady of Shallott." (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Ancillary Reading

Plays

Amazon logo Murphy, Gregory. The Countess. New York: Dramatist's Play Service, 2000. ISBN: 0822217368.
In Class

We'll also read a painting, Millais' "Christ in the House of His Parents" (with reference to "The Blind Girl"). (download a version of this work from abcgallery.com)

Factoids

PreRaphelite Aesthetics.

Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience and Bunthorne.
4Primary

Whitman. "Calamus." (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Poems

"Live Oak with Moss." (Poem Sequence) (download a version of this work from the University of Virginia)

Plato. "Lysis." (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Arnold, Matthew. "Sweetness and Light." (from Culture and Anarchy, 1869, chapter 1) (also Arnold in Victo antho, "Dover Beach" 64) (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)
In Class

We'll also read a painting, Thomas Eakins' "Swimming" with reference to photo-experiments by Eadweard Muybridge and to Sicilian (sqeamishly "classical") photos by (Baron) Wilhelm von Gloeden. (download a version of Eakins' work from whitmanarchive.org) download versions of Muybridge's work from Chrono Photographical Projections) (download versions of von Gloeden's work from vongloedengayhistory.free.fr)

Factoids

Eve Sedgwick (critic) Whitman as Code.

Julia Brown (critic) on Oxford Classicism.

Wilde in America. Wilde meets Whitman.

Whitman Tries to Edit himself Out of Gay History: The Textual History of 'Live Oak with Moss.'
5Primary

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Essays

Wilde. "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Ancillary

Shaw, George Bernard. "Quintessence of Ibsenism." (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

———. Pygmalion. (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)


Readings

Browning, E. B. "Sonnets" 1, "Grief" 7, "Flush" 10. (download versions of these works from Project Gutenberg)

Meredith, George. "From 'Modern Love'." pp. 75, 80, 81.
In Class

Sergeant Picture: "The Boit Sisters."

Wm. Morris: Wallpaper patterns, with reference to the history of wallpaper and to other systems of repetition and change — c.f. Deleuze.)

Factoids

Fabianism.

Wm. Morris and the politics of wallpaper.

Films

Weekday Evening: Wilde's An Ideal Husband. DVD, 98 min. Mirimax Home Entertainment, US, 2000.
6Primary

Essays

Wilde. Salome. (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Barthes, Roland. "On Striptease."
In Class

Aubrey Beardsley's Illustrations to Salome.

Factoids

The Textual History of Salome.

Beardsley and The Yellow Book.

Baudelaire and Symbolist Decadence.

Huysman.
7Primary

Wilde. Dorian Gray. (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Ancillary

Essays

Benjamin, Walter. "Art...Mechanical Reproduction." (download a version of this work from marxists.org)
Factoids

Amazon logo Self, Will. Dorian. London: Penguin Books, 2003. ISBN: 0140290567.

Amazon logo Lawsuit: Burrow Giles Lithographic vs. Sarony. Available in: Casner, James A. et. al. Cases and Text on Property. New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004. ISBN: 0735539804.
8Primary

Carroll, Lewis. Alice...in Wonderland. (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Ancillary

Freud, Sigmund. "...Infantile Sexuality." Available in:
Amazon logo Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books, 2000. ISBN: 0465097081

Deleuze, Gilles. "Lewis Carroll."
In Class

We'll read photos by 'Lewis Carroll' and by Sally Mann. download versions of Carroll's photos from the University of Virginia) (download versions of Mann's photos from sallymann.org)

Factoids

The Tenniell Illustations.

Lewis Carroll/Mathematician/Photographer.

Amazon logo Freud. Women and the Seduction Theory. Available in:
Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books, 2000. ISBN: 0465097081.
9Primary

Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest. (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)
In Class

Lady Bracknell and Austen's Lady DeVere.

Factoids

Telltale Cigarette Cases.

The Textual History of Earnest.
10Films

The Importance of Being Earnest
. DVD, 94 min. Mirimax Home Entertainment, US, 2002.
11Primary

Kaufman. Gross Indecencies.

Ancillary

Poems by Alfred (Lord) Douglas.
Factoids

The Textual History of "De P."

Amazon logo Hare, David. The Judas Kiss. New York: Grove Press 1998. ISBN: 0802135722

The Labouchère Amendment.

Edward Carpenter and the Intermediate Sex.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)
12Primary

Wilde. "De Profundis." (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Wilde. "The Ballad of Reading Goal." (download a version of this work from Project Gutenberg)

Ancillary
Poems

Hopkins, G. M.: "I Wake" 84, "Pies Beauty" 85 "God's Grandeur" 85, "Binsey Poplars" 86, "Spring" 87. (download versions of these works from geraldmanleyhopkins.org)
In Class

We'll read poster/pictures by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. (download versions of these works from ibiblio.org)

Factoids

What Became of Bosie.

Gide, André. The Immoralist /Gide and Wilde

Stoppard, Tom. Travesties.

The Politics of Reputation (Where is Wilde Buried?)

 








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