SEMINAR 4

“THE ARTIST IS THE CREATOR OF

BEAUTIFUL THINGS, AND ALL ART
Is QUITE USELESS”(?)
OSCAR WILDE’s PREFACE to “THE PICTURE
OF DORIAN GRAY”

OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900) : a NOVELIST AND a DRAMATIST and THE GREATEST

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT AT THE FIN DE SIECLE

1/COMMENT BRIEFLY: OSCAR WILDE’s LIFE AND CAREER (YOUR KEY WORDS:
Dublin; Art for art’s sake; eccentric; trial and rejection; epigrams and paradoxes)
2/ COMMENT ON THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTS AND find their relation to OSCAR
WILDE’s principles of art
------AESTHETICISM;
------HEDONISM;
-----DECADENCe;
----Symbolism;
----FIN DE SIECLE
----PRE-RAPHAELITE MOVEMENT IN ART
----WHAT IS A PARADOX?
----WHAT IS AN EPIGRAM?
3/ COMMENT ON THE TITLE: “THE PICTURE (not PORTRAIT) OF DORIAN GRAY”
(1891)
4 PONDER ON THE PREFACE TO “THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY”: HOW DOES
AFFIRM WILDE SUPPORT OF AESTETICISM AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL CONTENT OF
THE NOVEL
a/ HOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWINg statement (READ THE PREFACE):
“TO REVEAL ART AND CONCEAL THE ARTIST IS ART’S AIM”
5/ COMMENT ON THE LITERARY SOURCES OF THE NOVEL EXLORING THE DUALITY
THEME;
------THE FAUST LEGEND
------THE NARCISSUS MYTH from OVID’s METAMORPHOSIS
6/ EXPLICATE THE THEMES:
------THE DUAL NATURE OF A HUMAN BEING (A DOPPELGANGER EFFECT);
------THE FALL OF AN INDIVIDUAL (ГРІХОПАДІННЯ);
------THE BALANCE OF SOUL AND BODY
------SIN AND REDEMPTION
------THE THREATS OF MANIPULATION
------FRIENDSHIP
7/ CONSIDER THE MAJOR SYMBOLS:
PORTRAIT
YELLOW BOOK
THEATER
OPERA
WHITE NARCISSUS
OPIUM DEN

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The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

(“ЯК ВАЖЛИВО БУТИ СЕРЙОЗНИМ”): BLENDING
FARCE (ЩО ЦЕ ТАКЕ?) + ROMANTIC COMEDY +
SOCIAL SATIRE
1/ Explain the pun of the title. Do Gwendolen and Cecily prefer
having husbands named EARNEST to having EARNEST
husbands?
2/ HOW IS LANGUAGE USED TO DEVELOP THE CHARACTERS
AND PROPEL THE PLOT?
3/ DISCUSS THE IDEA OF A THEMATIC CONTRAST:
Appearance vs reality;
City vs the country;
Deception vs truth ;
Manners vs morality.

REFERENCES
1 ANY RELEVANT WEBSITE (CliffsNotes; SparkNotes; StudyPool;
GradeSaver; Shmoop and other study guides)
2 GILLESPIE M. P. ETHICS AND AESTHETICS IN THE PICTURE OF
DORIAN GRAY//
http://w1.qehs.net/moodle2/plugingfile.php/7355/mod_resour
ce/content/1/Ethics%20aesthetics%20in20Dorian.pdf

HOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING OSCAR WILDE’s

EPIGRAMS (APHORISMS, witty sayings):

------A MAN WHO MORALIZES IS USUALLY A HYPOCRITE, AND A

WOMAN WHO MORALIZES IS INVARIABLY PLAIN
------WOMEN ARE MEANT TO BE LOVED NOT TO BE
UNDERSTOOD

-------THE ONLY WAY TO GET RID OF TEMPTATION IS TO YIELD

TO IT