Oscar Wilde And Creative Criticism

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is best remembered by the audience for his witty and captivating drama, novel, and fairy tales. Although Wilde criticism starts almost simultaneously with his aesthetic debut in London society in his golden youth, there is also a long established bias among the critics against Wilde, the critic, his critical thoughts and ideas.Inspired by the sparks of insight concerning Wilde's critical thoughts, traced out from the earliest Wilde criticism through to the modern and postmodernist ones, the author of this thesis will concern the piece mainly with Wilde's critical essays in the Intentions (1891) to explore the central idea of Wilde's critical theory, namely, creative criticism, from every possible angle.Part one gives a brief introduction to the research situations of Wilde criticism home and abroad, paying special regard to those essays and works about Whild's critical thoughts and ideas, e.g. traditional viewpoint to take Wilde's dialectic argument as a paradoxical play of words, and his creative criticism another form of Pater's impressionistic or appreciative criticism, etc. The author debates that Wilde's critical theory, far from being empty wordplay or "a popular Pater", comes from the joint effort of the rebellious intellectual background of the latter nineteenth century and his philosophical thinking and subjective intentions as well.Part two first answers what Wilde's creative criticism is, and how it is revealed or concealed in the Intentions. According to Wilde, criticism is first a creation of its own that treats the work of art simply as a starting point for a new creation, which needs not necessarily bear any obvious resemblance to the thing it criticises; then, it is more creative than creation, as creation can only reproduce and is always behind the age, and it is criticism that originates new form and school to lead us. In a word, criticism is in its essence purely subjective. The Intentions is no other than a representation of his critical theory in either the form or the content. Then, the author carries on to explore the whys and wherefores for Wilde's creative criticism to come into being, that is, the emergence of new thoughts and schools against the decay of religious or political authority, Arnold's call for "culture" and independent criticism, Pater's aesthetic criticism, and Oxford Hegelians' interpretation of dialectics etc.Part three first reevaluates Wilde's creative criticism in the light of modern andpostmodernist critical theories, like the New Critic's intentional fallacy, the poststructuralist's radical disavowal of authorship, the deconstructionist's creative misreading, etc., to explore its contemporary relevance. Then the author attempts an incomplete list of the namesake propositions in the critical history, e.g. T. S. Eliot's unexplained division, J. E. Spingarn's actual application, Karl Shapiro's similar definition and his consciously using the creative criticism as a means to "break away" from modern criticism that has been overridden by ideological or cultural concerns. Thus the author traces the latest trend of Wilde criticism, comparing Wilde's creative criticism with the postmodernist counterparts to find where they coincide and where they do not, so as to disclose its contemporary and pioneering significance.