Who Owns the Legacy of Oscar Wilde?
An Interdisciplinary Conference
History and Culture Program
Caspersen School of Graduate Studies
Drew University, Madison, New Jersey
1-2 June 2012
Who was Oscar Wilde? An aesthete who subverted philistine values, or pandered to bourgeois taste? The first modern dramatist, or the last of the Victorian playwrights? An Irish nationalist, or an Anglophile? A socialist, or a shrewd literary entrepreneur? An immoralist, or a new kind of moralist? A philosopher, or a court jester? A misogynist, or a feminist? A pioneer of “queer theory,” or someone who never quite came to terms with his sexuality?
This conference will present and debate diverse perspectives on Wilde and his work, from many disciplines and all points on the ideological compass. Abstracts of panels or individual papers (one page/250 words maximum per paper) should be submitted by 15 January 2012 to the Program Committee Chair, Prof. Edward Baring (ebaring@drew.edu). We welcome submissions from graduate students as well as faculty.
Direct all other queries to the Conference Co-chairs, Prof. Christine Kinealy (ckinealy@drew.edu) and Prof. Jonathan Rose (jrose@drew.edu).