Contradictions In Oscar Wilde's Literary Practice

Oscar Wilde has been famous for his advocating the slogan of "art for art's sake". However, the complex contradictions revealed in Oscar Wilde's literary practice, including those within his artistic theories, those between his theoretical ideas and his literary practice, and those among the literary characters he created, and those embodied in his paradoxes as well, have long been ignored by most people and literary critics. Therefore, it is of great realistic and academic significance for a comprehensive understanding of Oscar Wilde and his literary creation to study those contradictions.The discussions and analyses of this thesis are conducted mainly from the perspective of the Marxism and New Criticism. The contradictions in Wilde's artistic theories lie in the relationship between art and life and that between art and morality. Considering art an independent subject, Wilde was against that politics, utilitarianism, morality and ethics force should interfere in art. By insisting on "art for art's sake," Oscar Wilde demonstrated to believe in the art being self-contained entity. Contradictorily, his belief in "life imitating art" proved that art had utilitarianism, at least, had something to do with something else. Wilde tried to build an ivory tower of beauty yet he could not break off his attention from the mortal world; he tried to separate art from either utilitarianism or morality, but he always failed on the verge of success; he announced that lying was the proper aim of art but at the same time he took art as absolute truth and paid his homage; and he extremely emphasized the form yet in the meantime he was unable to deny the content.Wilde's artistic theory inevitably brought forth relative contradictions in his literary practice. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde demonstrated various masks through the contradictions among multiple personalities. Through his fairy tales, Wilde exposed two contradictory worlds: a real world and an imaginary world, in which all characters' beauty, ugliness, kindness and evil were vividly reflected. In addition, Wilde applied the paradox as one of his tools of language and artistic skill, effectively expressing his thoughts and viewpoints especially in his dramas. Through discussions and analyses of Wilde's contradictions within his artistic theories, between artistic theories and literary practice, and reflected in his literary works, we find that Wilde's unremittingly longing for a Utopia of beauty in real life had been his rebellion against the Victorian moral codes. A dynamic view should be applied to reading his literary creations. And in the exploration we have found that the deep theoretical root of Wilde's contradictions in his literary practice resided in the theory of inspiration of Plato. This thesis aims for a better understanding and evaluation of Wilde, his literary practice and artistic criticism, and in the pursuit of the truth of art.