Essay #12: Deaglán Ó Donghaile, ’Oscar Wilde: Anarchism and Aestheticism’

2021-05-03

In this essay, Deaglán Ó Donghaile discusses Oscar Wilde’s interest in and support for anarchism. Anarchism influenced Wilde’s literary writings enormously, yet he is still regarded by many readers as an apolitical writer. Drawing on research carried out for his next book, Revolutionary Wilde, Deaglán contextualises these works by relating them to Wilde’s openly professed radical beliefs, as expressed in his public lectures and now-forgotten newspaper writings. Deaglán Ó Donghaile is a British Academy Rese...

In this essay, Deaglán Ó Donghaile discusses Oscar Wilde’s interest in and support for anarchism. Anarchism influenced Wilde’s literary writings enormously, yet he is still regarded by many readers as an apolitical writer. Drawing on research carried out for his next book, Revolutionary Wilde, Deaglán contextualises these works by relating them to Wilde’s openly professed radical beliefs, as expressed in his public lectures and now-forgotten newspaper writings.

Deaglán Ó Donghaile is a British Academy Research Fellow based at Liverpool John Moores University. His latest book is Oscar Wilde and the Radical Politics of the Fin de Siècle.

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