After his release from prison in May 1897, Oscar Wilde left England for good and mainly relocated in northern France, southern Italy, and Paris, where he died within three years and a half. Frequently dismissed in the past as a period of personal and professional decline, Wilde’s exile was far from insignificant and unproductive, as recognised in recent years by Nicholas Frankel and Stefano Evangelista, among others. Not only was it the time in which The Ballad of Reading Goal was composed and published, with unprecedented commercial success and Wilde’s name at last reappearing on a frontispiece, in a kind of authorial rebirth, but the exile also gave him opportunities to establish or consolidate transcultural networks. These led to translations – either printed or planned – and reviews of his texts, periodical contributions, and projects to stage some of his plays. Wilde also edited and published The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband, reprised work on A Florentine Tragedy and La Sainte Courtisane, and briefly explored such new art forms as the opera libretto and “romantic dramas” taken from Biblical stories. These achievements deserve to be fully acknowledged by Wilde studies and included into the author’s canon. The proposed contribution will reassess his exile works by placing the emphasis on how they were shaped by the two foreign cultures that had become part of his everyday experience. The analysis will explore Wilde’s personal, social, and artistic self-refashioning to adjust to life in France and Italy and the strategies he adopted to revitalise his career from abroad. Constantly moving between centre – Paris, Naples, and Rome – and periphery – Northern France and the Riviera, Capri and Sicily – in both countries he experienced enormous difficulties and marginalisation, though also ephemeral success and notoriety. The contribution will consider how the complex dynamics of those last years became instrumental in setting Wilde’s reception on the Continent, and consequently repositioning his literary reputation in Britain and across cultures.
Exile in France and Italy
Bizzotto, Elisa
2025-01-01
Abstract
After his release from prison in May 1897, Oscar Wilde left England for good and mainly relocated in northern France, southern Italy, and Paris, where he died within three years and a half. Frequently dismissed in the past as a period of personal and professional decline, Wilde’s exile was far from insignificant and unproductive, as recognised in recent years by Nicholas Frankel and Stefano Evangelista, among others. Not only was it the time in which The Ballad of Reading Goal was composed and published, with unprecedented commercial success and Wilde’s name at last reappearing on a frontispiece, in a kind of authorial rebirth, but the exile also gave him opportunities to establish or consolidate transcultural networks. These led to translations – either printed or planned – and reviews of his texts, periodical contributions, and projects to stage some of his plays. Wilde also edited and published The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband, reprised work on A Florentine Tragedy and La Sainte Courtisane, and briefly explored such new art forms as the opera libretto and “romantic dramas” taken from Biblical stories. These achievements deserve to be fully acknowledged by Wilde studies and included into the author’s canon. The proposed contribution will reassess his exile works by placing the emphasis on how they were shaped by the two foreign cultures that had become part of his everyday experience. The analysis will explore Wilde’s personal, social, and artistic self-refashioning to adjust to life in France and Italy and the strategies he adopted to revitalise his career from abroad. Constantly moving between centre – Paris, Naples, and Rome – and periphery – Northern France and the Riviera, Capri and Sicily – in both countries he experienced enormous difficulties and marginalisation, though also ephemeral success and notoriety. The contribution will consider how the complex dynamics of those last years became instrumental in setting Wilde’s reception on the Continent, and consequently repositioning his literary reputation in Britain and across cultures.
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