The Influence Of Marginal Identity On Wilde's Thoughts And Writing

Concerning the contradictoriness of Wilde, literary critics have ever manydifferent levels of understanding. They have seldom analyzed the causes that led tohis contradictoriness of thoughts and writing from his character. This thesis not onlytries to comment his identity crisis of his being Irish and homosexual, and hiscontribute to modernism and post-modernism, but understand his thoughts andwriting in a new point of view, in order to comment him more fairly and precisely.This thesis can be divided into four parts:The first part analyzes the marginal identity of Wilde from his familybackground and special sexual inclination. He was born in Ireland and was influencedby Irish culture, afterward he came to London because of the misfortune of his familyand his own ambitiousness. As the colonial person living in suzerain state, he isdiscriminated against consequently and became a marginal man;he is also ahomosexual, which marginalized him again. The amoral love between Douglass andhim destroyed his life, as well as made him notorious greatly. In face of the criticallymoral shackles of Victorian Age, the homosexual are no doubt against the moralprinciples, and condemned by society. Thus he himself chose to be a marginal manonce again.The second part explains, from the two points of the aesthetical and religiousconceptions, the marginality of his thoughts. As to his non-mainstream aestheticalconception, I analyzed from four major parts. The anti-authorial Wilde criticizedcruelly the stiff dogmas of Anglicanism and revised religious spirit to his needs.The third part analyzes the influence of the marginal identity and thoughts on hiswriting, and explores the mental pains that his marginal state caused and the attemptof entering the mainstream society. According to the post-colonial theories, thecolonized living in the metropolitan state feel homeless and depressed, so we can findthe contrary feels in all of his works: the denounce of colonizers and the wishes formodern civilization;praises of homosexual and wishes of acceptation from family andsociety.The forth part concludes his contribution, mainly discusses innovation of writingtechniques, contribution to the new development of aesthetics, and modernity of theindividuals.Thus this thesis presents the identity, thoughts and writing of Wilde, and tries tolink together his aestheticism, contradiction, tragedy, and marginality, in order todemonstrate one real Wilde and find, in the new cultural context, the new way ofrecognize his thoughts and writing.