ENL 6256 WILDE, BEARDSLEY, &  LATE-VICTORIAN SEXUAL POLITICS

Dr. Chris Snodgrass; 4336 Turlington, 376-8362; 278-8362; snod@english.ufl.edu
 

SYLLABUS: READING SCHEDULE

COURSE TEXTS (Texts and photocopy packets available only at Orange and Blue Textbooks)

Oscar Wilde, Complete Shorter Fiction (Oxford)
Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism and Selected Critical Prose (Penguin)
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Norton)
Oscar Wilde, The Plays of Oscar Wilde (Vintage)
Oscar Wilde, De Profundis and Other Writings (Penguin)
Aubrey Beardsley, Best Works of Aubrey Beardsley (Dover)
Two (2) photocopy supplements — from Orange and Blue Textbooks

SCHEDULE (subject to modest negotiation)

Week 1  Introduction: Aestheticism, Decadence and the Degeneration Discourse [Packet #1, c. 130 pages]

Karl Beckson, Prefaces and “Introduction,” Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890s (1965; Academy Chicago, 1981), vii–xiii, [xxi]–xliv.

Introduction, “Walter Pater (1839–1894)”
Walter Pater — “Preface” and “Conclusion,” from The Renaissance (1873), vii–xv, 233–39.           

Introduction: “Arthur Symons (1865–1945)”
Arthur Symons — “Preface: Being a Word on Behalf of Patchouli,” from Silhouettes (2nd edition, 1896), 95–97; “Preface to the Second Edition” of London Nights (1897), 165–67; “Introduction” and “Conclusion” to The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1896–99), 1–9, 170–75.

Jenny Bourne Taylor, “Psychology at the fin de siècle,” from Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle, ed. Gail Marshall (New York: Cambridge UP, 2007), 13–30.
Sandra Siegel, “Literature and Degeneration: The Representation of ‘Decadence,’” from Degeneration: The Dark Side of Progress, eds. Chamberlin and Gilman (1985), 199–219: 206–19.
           
Hugh E. M. Stutfield, “Tommyrotics.”  Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 157.956 (June 1895): 833–45.       

Week 2  Oscar Wilde: Early Poems and Short Fiction
                  [Packet #1, c. 25 pages; The Plays of Oscar Wilde, c. 35 pages; De Profundis and Other Writings, c. 10 pages; Complete Shorter Fiction, c. 200 pages] 

Introduction: “Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)”
John Lahr, “Introduction,” Plays of Oscar Wilde, vii–xl.

Oscar Wilde —
     Poetry (Packet): “Hélas!” “Vita Nuova,” “The Harlot’s House,” “Impression du Matin,” “The Grave of Keats,” “Apologia,” “Silentium Amoris,” “Taedium Vitae,” 
                              “The  Sphinx,” “Symphony in Yellow,” “To L.L.”
     Poetry (De Profundis): “Sonnet to Liberty,” “Requiescat,” “Ave Maria Gratia Plena,” “The Grave of Shelley,” “Portia [To Ellen Terry],” “Γλνκνπικρς”  [Bittersweet
                                       Love],” “To My Wife.”

Isobel Murray, “Introduction,” Complete Shorter Fiction, 1–18.

Wilde — Short Fiction:
     From Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories (1887; 1991):
          “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”
          “The Sphinx Without a Secret”

          The Portrait of Mr. W. H. (1889)

     From The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888):
           “The Happy Prince”        
           “The Nightingale and the Rose”
           “The Selfish Giant”
     From House of Pomegranates (1891):
            “The Birthday of the Infanta”
            “The Fisherman and his Soul”
            “The Star-Child”
      From Poems in Prose (1886–91):
            “The Doer of Good”
            “The House of Judgment”
            “The Teacher of Wisdom.”

Week 3  Oscar Wilde: Critical Essays
                  [The Soul of Man Under Socialism and Selected Critical Prose, c. 200 pages]

Linda Dowling, “Introduction,” vii–xxvii.
       
Wilde — Criticism:
“The Truth of Masks,” 280–304 [originally published in Nineteenth Century (May 1885); published in Intentions (1891) and Intentions and the Soul of Man Under
            Socialism, Vol. 8 of The First Collected Edition of the Works of Oscar Wilde, 280–304].
“The Decay of Lying,” [55]–87 [published in Nineteenth Century (January 1889), Intentions (1891), and Intentions and the Soul of Man Under Socialism, Vol. 8 of
            The First Collected Edition of the Works of Oscar Wilde (1908–22), [1]–57].  
“The Critic As Artist,” 213–79 [published in Nineteenth Century (July and September 1890), Intentions (1891), and Intentions and the Soul of Man Under Socialism,
            Vol. 8 of The First Collected Edition of the Works of Oscar Wilde (1908–22), [98]–224].
“Soul of Man Under Socialism,” 125–60 [published in Fortnightly Review (February 1891), and Intentions and the Soul of Man Under Socialism, Vol. 8 of The First
            Collected Edition of the Works of Oscar Wilde, 225–70]. 
“Pen, Pencil, and Poison,” 193–212 [published in Intentions (1891), and Intentions and the Soul of Man Under Socialism, Vol. 8 of The First Collected Edition of the
            Works of Oscar Wilde (1908–22), 59–95].       
——PROJECT SELECTION DUE——

Week 4  Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
                  [Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism and Selected Critical Prose, c. 20 pages; Picture of Dorian Gray, c. 375 pages]

Wilde, “In Defence of Dorian Gray,” SM&SCP 103–23.
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, [1]–281. (1890–91), introductory material, “Preface,” and both texts, vii–xxiv, [1]–281.  

“Background” and selection from Huysmans, Against Nature [À Rebours], .
Reviews and Reactions (all).
       
“Criticism”  (all).
Joyce Carol Oates, “The Picture of Dorian Gray: Wilde’s Parable of the Fall”

Aubrey Beardsley — from La Morte Darthur and Bon-Mots series, and other mostly early pictures: Best Works of Aubrey Beardsley, pp. 3–17, 19–23 (view Rossetti’s
            La Pia de’ Tolomei [1868-80] on my website in conjunction with Beardsley’s Kiss of Judas ([1893], Best of Beardsley 22), 62–72, 124–280.

Ian Fletcher, “A Grammar of Monsters,” ELT 30.2 (1987): 141–63.
Chris Snodgrass, “The Rhetoric of the Grotesque: Monstrous Emblems,” from Aubrey Beardsley, Dandy of the Grotesque (Oxford UP, 1995), 161–203, 308–309.
_____________, “The Beardsleyan Dandy: Icon of Grotesque Beauty,” from Aubrey Beardsley, Dandy of the Grotesque (Oxford UP, 1995), 204–242, 309–310.

Week 6      Oscar Wilde: Salome [Wilde, Plays, c. 40 pages; Packet #2, c. 15 pages]

Wilde, Salome (1891–92), 83–124.

Arthur Symons — “The World as Ballet,” Studies in the Seven Arts (1906), 244–46.

Chris Snodgrass, “Wilde’s Salome: Turning ‘the Monstrous Beast’ into a Tragic Hero,” Oscar Wilde: The Man, His Writing, and His World, ed. Robert N. Keane (New York: AMS Press, 2003): 183–96.
—— BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE ——

Week 7  Aubrey Beardsley: Salome Illustrations [plus c. 30 website pictures; Best of Beardsley, c. 20 pages; Packet #2, c. 65 pages]

Historical images of “Fatal Women” (on my website: http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/snod/OtherImages.html ):
Michaelangelo Caravaggio, Judith & Holofernes (c.1595), Salome receives the Head of Saint John the Baptist (1607-10), Salome With the Head of the Baptist (c. 1609); Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes (c. 1620), Judith Slaying Holofernes, Naples (c. 1620), Judith and her Maidservant (1612-13), Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (1625); Peter Paul Rubens, Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1616), Judith with the Head of Holofernes (1620-22); Leighton, The Fisherman and the Siren (1856-58), The Garden of the Hesperides (c. 1892); Gustav Moreau, Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864), Salome Dancing Before Herod (1874-76), The Apparition (1874-76), Samson and Delilah (1882), The Poet and the Siren (1894); Burne-Jones, Phyllis and Demophöon (1870), The Tree of Forgiveness (1870); Franz von Stuck, Sin (1891), Sin (1893), Sin (1899), The Sphinx (1889), Kiss of the Sphinx (1895), Salomé (1906), Judith & Holofernes (1926); Lévy-Dhurmer, Salome Embracing the Severed Head of John the Baptist (1896), Medusa (1897);  Schwabe, Medusa (1895), Study For The Wave (1906), La Barque de la Mort; Gustav Klimt, Judith II (1909)

Beardsley — Salome pictures from Best of Beardsley (in some cases, you may find better detail on my website), pp. 18, 24–39.
 
Symons — “Aubrey Beardsley” (1898), 87–106
                  “Studies in Strange Sins (After Beardsley’s Designs)” (1920), 273–85.

Chris Snodgrass, “Decadent Mythmaking: Arthur Symons on Aubrey Beardsley and Salome,” Victorian Poetry 28, No. 3-4 (Autumn-Winter 1990): 61–109.

Week 8  Oscar Wilde: History, Artistry, and Recreating the Past [Wilde, Plays, c. 85 pages]                

Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), [1]–82.


Week 9 Oscar Wilde: Bad and Good Dandies and ‘New Women’ [Wilde, Plays, c. 230 pages]

Wilde, Woman of No Importance (1893), [125]–218.
Wilde, An Ideal Husband (1894), [219]–343.
—— STATEMENT OF THESIS DUE ——

Introduction: “Eliza Lynn Linton (1822–98).”
Eliza Lynn Linton, “The Wild Women As Social Insurgents,” Nineteenth Century 30 (October 1891): 596–605.             
           
Introduction: “Sarah Grand [Francis Clarke McFall] (1854–1943).”
Sarah Grand, “The New Aspects of the Woman Question,” North American Review (1894): 660–66.
           
Introduction: “Ouida [Marie Louise de la Ramée] (1839–1908).”
Ouida, “The New Woman,” North American Review 158 (1894): 610–19 [a response to Sarah  Grand’s “The New Aspects of the Woman Question”].
Grand, “The New Woman and the Old,” Lady’s Realm (1898): 668–75.

Mostly 19th Century Art II (on my website: http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/snod/Texts&Images.htm): 
Titian [Tiziano Vecelli],Venus of Urbino (1538); Ingres, La Grande Odalisque (1814), Odalisque with a Slave (1840); Millais, Mariana (1851), Cherry Ripe (1879); Gustav Courbet, L'Origine du monde [The Origin of the World] (1862, 1866); Edouard Manet, Olympia (1863), Woman with a Parrot (1866), Nana (1877); Rossetti, Lady Lilith (1868), La Ghirlandata (1873), Astarte Syriaca (1877); Rops, La Tentation de St-Antoine [The Temptation of Saint Anthony] (1878), Pornokrates, or La Dame au cochon (1879), L’Incantation [Incantation]; John Spencer Stanhope, Eve Tempted (1877, Manchester), Eve Tempted (1877, version 2); Leighton, The Bath of Psyche (c. 1890); Lawrence Alma-Tadema, In the Tepidarium (1881, Lady Lever), Albert Moore, The Toilette (1886); John Collier, Lilith (1887); John William Godward, Mischief and Repose (1895), The Priestess (1895), The Delphic Oracle (1899), The Mirror, or Contemplation (1899); John Waterhouse, Pandora (1896), Ariadne (1898); Draper, The Gates of Dawn (c. 1900); Edward Poynter, The Cave of the Storm Nymphs (1903); Arthur Wardle, A Bacchante (1909); and feel free to examine any others.     

R. A. Walker, “Foreward to The Art of Hoarding,” A Beardsley Miscellany (London: Bodley Head, 1949).
Aubrey Beardsley — “The Art of Hoarding,” New Review (July 1894).
           
Beardsley — illustrations from Yellow Book period: Best Works of Aubrey Beardsley, pp. 40–61, 152–60.

Punch cartoons (see “Text & Images” website on my homepage: http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/snod/19thImages.html): 
Referencing High Society, Fashion, London Season, the Arts: 
Prospects for the Coming Season, Vol. 98, p. 147 (1890), Woman With Peacock Fan, Vol. 104, p. 21 (1893), Girl With Fan, Vol. 108 (1895), Sleeves, Vol. 109 (1895)
Referencing Beardsley:
Beardsley Admiring Himself, One & Only Aubrey, An Appropriate Illustration, by Danby Weirdsley, Vol. 106 (1894), SheNotes, Vol. 106 (1894), SheNotes Reclining, Vol. 106 (1894), Ars Postera, Vol. 106 (1894), Quid Est Pictura — Veritas Falsa, Vol. 107, P. 47 (1894), The Minx, Vol. 107 (1894), By Mortarthurio Whiskersley, Vol. 107 (1894), Ars Presumptera, Vol. 107, P. 205 (1894), Britannia à la Beardsley, Vol. 108 (1895), Beardsley Pulling Carriage, Vol. 108 (1895), Published at the Bodily Head, Vol. 108 (1895), Le Yellow Book, Vol.108 (1895)
About the New Woman, Gender Issues:
“Imitation is Sincerest Flattery” (Vol. 98, p. 162), Sterner Stuff, Vol. 101 (1891), A Bird of Prey, Vol. 102 (1892), The Darwinian Theory, Vol. 102, p. 291 (1892), New Woman with Flowerpot Hat, Vol. 103, p. 49 (1892), Descent Into the Maelstrom, Vol. 104, p. 38 (1893), A Terrible Turk, Vol. 104 (1893), Modern Labor, Vol. 104 (1893), The Second Mrs. Tanqueray Proceeding By Leaps & Bounds, Vol. 104, p. 273 (1893), 2nd Mrs. Tanqueray, Vol. 105, p. 54 (1894), 2nd Mrs. Tanqueray Is Played Out, Vol. 106 (1894), Determination, Vol. 105 (1894), What It Will Soon Come To, Vol. 106 (1894), Donna Quixote, Vol. 106 (1894), Billing and Cooing, Vol. 106 (1894), Our Decadents (Female), Vol. 106 (1894), Passionate Female Literary Types, Vol. 106 (1894), A Little “New Woman,” Vol. 107 (1894), A “New Woman,” Vol. 107, p. 111 (1894), We’ve Not Come To That Yet, Vol. 107 (1894), New Woman Riding Bike, Vol. 108 (1895), Sylvia Scarlet, Vol. 108 (1895), The New Woman, Vol. 108, p. 282 (1895), The Woman Who Wouldn’t, Vol. 108 (1895), The Woman Who Wanted To, Vol. 109 (1895), Presiding Deity, 1895, Vol. 109 (1895), La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Vol. 109, p. 268 (1895), and feel free to look at others if you’d like.
—— STATEMENT OF THESIS DUE——

Week 11  Aubrey Beardsley and The Savoy [Best of Beardsley, c. 40 pages; 5 website images]

Beardsley — Illustrations from Savoy period: Best Works of Aubrey Beardsley, pp. 73–77, 79–107, 123–40.   

Week 12  Wilde & Beardsley ‘Taking it to the Limits’ [Plays, 95 pages; Packet #2, c. 45 pages; Best of Beardsley, c. 350 pages; 1 website picture.]

Beardsley — “The Three Musicians,” 147–48
                    “Ballad of the Barber,” 149
                    The Story of Venus and Tannhäuser (1895–97), 151–70
John Collier — In the Venusburg (Tannhäuser) (1901) (website)

Beardsley — Best Works of Aubrey Beardsley, pp. 78, 82–85, 88

Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), [345]–440

—— DRAFT OF TERM PAPER DUE (Optional) ——    

Week 13  Aubrey Beardsley’s Lysistrata [Packet #2, c. 8 pages/pictures; Best of Beardsley, 6 pages]

Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), [345]–440

Beardsley — illustrations for Lysistrata (1897), Best Works of Beardsley, pp. 108–113, plus the additional unexpurgated Lysistrata images in packet and on my website.

Week 14  Oscar Wilde’s Confessions [Wilde, De Profundis and Other Writings, c. 150 pages]

Hesketh Pearson, “Introduction,” 9–16.
Vyvyan Holland, “Introduction,” [89]–95.
Wilde, De Profundis, 97–211 [first unabridged version published in 1949]    

Wilde, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” Poems [229]–52.

Week 15  Aubrey Beardsley’s Later Works [Best of Beardsley, c. 20 pages]

Beardsley — Illustrations for The Rape of the Lock, Pierrot of the Minute, Volpone, and other later projects: Best Works of Aubrey Beardsley, pp. 95–107, 114–22, 141–51.

—— TERM PAPER DUE NOON, MONDAY OF FINALS WEEK ——