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  • Negative Eroticism: Lyric Performativity and the Sexual Subject in Oscar Wilde's "The Portrait of Mr. W. H."

    Author(s):
    Dustin Friedman (see profile)
    Date:
    2013
    Group(s):
    Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century English Literature, LLC Victorian and Early-20th-Century English, TC Philosophy and Literature, TC Sexuality Studies
    Subject(s):
    English literature, Nineteenth century, Lyric poetry, Criticism, Literature--Theory, etc., Sex, Queer theory, Subjectivity
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Victorian literature, Lyric theory, Sexuality
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/3rp6-8d63
    Abstract:
    This essay explores the radical subjectivism of Oscar Wilde's novella "The Portrait of Mr. W.H." (1889/1921), which celebrates the creative potential of nonessentialist forms of identity and yet cautions against jettisoning humanist notions of selfhood entirely. I contend that Wilde turned to G. W. F. Hegel's performative theory of lyric negativity to advance his homoerotic reading of William Shakespeare's sonnets. This reading expresses the insight Wilde gains from Hegel's theory: namely, that language's limited ability to capture the truth of erotic desire need not undermine the fundamental perdurability of individual subjectivity. In contrast to much recent work in queer theory, Wilde's novella demonstrates the ability of homoerotic desire to ground, rather than undermine, a notion of reflective freedom.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Publisher:
    Johns Hopkins University Press
    Pub. Date:
    Summer 2013
    Journal:
    ELH
    Volume:
    80
    Issue:
    2
    Page Range:
    598 - 626
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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    Item Name: pdf negative_eroticism_lyric_performativity.pdf
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