Fantasies, Fantasias, and Fangirls: Wilde’s Fairy Tales and “New Women” Writers
February 21 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
William Andrews Clark Oscar Wilde Lecture
Lecture by Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of Humanities, University of Delaware
Oscar Wilde’s importance in the world of the theatre is, of course, unparalleled. His effect on Gothic fiction (and on queer fiction) has been equally profound, due to the popularity of his one novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. This talk, however, will suggest that his fairy tales have been just as influential, and that their influence was clear almost immediately after the publication of both The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891), especially in works by rebellious “New Women” of the 1890s. Irish and English writers such as “George Egerton” (Mary Chavelita Dunne), Mabel Nembhard, and Ella Erskine followed his lead in this form, while often turning their own storytelling in different directions, including feminist ones. Like his, their fairy tales were not for children, but for politically conscious adults. Though their names may be unfamiliar to readers today, these women helped to keep Wilde’s innovations and his literary reputation alive throughout his persecution by the British legal system and catastrophic fall from grace.
Margaret D. Stetz has been the author or editor of a number of volumes and of over 130 published essays on topics ranging from Victorian women’s comic fiction, to sexual violence during wartime, to the politics of animated films. She has also been curator or co-curator of over a dozen exhibitions on late-Victorian print culture and art at museums, libraries, and galleries. In addition, she is a widely published poet.
The registration form is available on our website.
This event is free to attend with advance registration and will be held in person at the Clark Library and livestreamed on the Center’s YouTube Channel. No registration is required to watch the livestream.
Registration will close on Monday, February 16 at 5:00 p.m.
Capacity is limited at the Clark Library; walk-in registrants are welcome as space permits.