Oscar Wilde’s Modernist Legacies
June 5 - June 6
Organized by Professors Joseph Bristow, University of California, Los Angeles, and Deaglán Ó Donghaile, Liverpool John Moores University
A central figure in the literary and cultural spheres of the late nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was also the originator of Irish modernism. Still, literary scholarship has largely sidelined his powerful influence over this movement. Regarded by his contemporaries as an outstanding artist, critic, and public intellectual until his imprisonment in 1895, current research on Wilde tends to confine his leading presence within the late Victorian aesthetic and decadent movements. By highlighting this overlooked aspect of Wilde’s legacy, “Oscar Wilde’s Modernist Legacies” will raise critical and theoretical awareness of his influence over modernist innovation not only within the field of literary production but also in related artistic areas in Ireland and beyond.
The literary revival of the 1890s has been cited as the launching ground for experimental modernism in Ireland, with the publication and staging of works by William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), John Millington Synge (1871–1909), and Augusta Gregory (1852–1932) that celebrate rural or Celticist versions of modernity. The revival’s longer-term origins, however, can be traced to the metropolitan and radical aesthetes, feminists, queer artists, anarchists, and Irish separatists who belonged to the milieus in which Oscar Wilde moved. This conference will draw on the Clark Library’s imposing archive, the “Oscar Wilde and His Literary Circle Collection,” to explore the dialogues that these figures established, along with their interactions with traditions of Irish and, more broadly, American and European modernism.
The list of speakers, the conference schedule, and the registration form are available on our website.
This event is free to attend with advance registration and will be held in person at the Clark Library.
Registration will close on Monday, June 1 at 5:00 p.m.
Capacity is limited at the Clark Library; walk-in registrants are welcome as space permits.