Center for 17th & 18th Century Studies

Conference organized by Joseph Bristow, University of California, Los Angeles Oscar Wilde, Sexuality, and the State will consider both the fin-de-siècle contexts and the worldwide consequences of the three trials involving Oscar Wilde that took place at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) from 3 April 1895 to 25 May 1895. These trials arguably constitute the most famous criminal proceedings relating to the state prohibition of male homosexuality. The conference takes the occasion of Wilde’s courtroom ordeal as a starting-point for understanding not only the growing awareness of queer subcultures during the 1880s and 1890s but also the long shadow...