MR. W.H. AS A PROBLEM OF FAITH IN WILDE’S READING OF SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Authors

  • Aleksandar Radovanović University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Philology and Arts

Keywords:

Оскар Вајлд, „Портрет господина В.Х.“, Шекспирови Сонети, вера

Abstract

Approaching Shakespeare’s legacy in accord with his view that our only duty to history is to rewrite it, Oscar Wilde uses his story “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.” to create a fictitious revision of the Victorian comprehension of the Bard’s Sonnets, entering the process of “disclosing” the person they are dedicated to. With his (quasi-)revisionist method, Wilde contextualizes Shakespeare within Plato’s concept of love in order to destabilize the heteronormative social imperatives of his age, while simultaneously postulating a creative model of literary criticism, out of which faith looms as an unexpected instigating principle. Rejecting rationality as a universal parameter of the value of ideas and defying the gnoseological patterns of Protestantism and positivism, Wilde’s text constitutes itself within the ensuing semantic vacuum as a parable of the (im)possibility of spiritual cognizance through faith.

References

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Published

11-30-2012

How to Cite

Radovanović А. (2012). MR. W.H. AS A PROBLEM OF FAITH IN WILDE’S READING OF SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS. Nasleđe, 9(22), 215–226. Retrieved from http://nasledje.kg.ac.rs/index.php/nasledje/article/view/478