Last Thursday, I attended the Great Lives lecture on Oscar Wilde, presented by Nicholas Frankel. This talk focused largely on Wilde’s personal motivations throughout life, particularly relating to his belief in the connection between life and art. While the lecture did not focus on disability, in relation to Wilde himself or his literature, it was a fascinating insight into Wilde’s life.
Frankel gave us a somewhat detailed biography of Wilde, including emphasis on the author’s belief that life itself is a form of art. According to Frankel, Wilde lived with the purpose of creating and imitating art. In regards to much of his writing, Frankel explained that Wilde used his trademark magical descriptions in an attempt to make life seem beautiful like art. According to this presentation, Wilde also believed that “mean things put on beauty like a dress.” Both of these themes are ones which I can see in the short stories which we read by Oscar Wilde earlier this semester. Understanding his personal background and motivation in life and writing is incredibly interesting, but also an insightful way to better examine these stories.
Again, this presentation focused very little time on discussing Wilde’s literature itself; additionally, Frankel largely ignored any details of Wilde’s life which some use to consider him disability-aligned. He did, however, spend a great deal of the lecture discussing the linguistic meanings and changes surrounding Wilde’s name. Throughout his life, he changed his name multiple times, from his original birth name of Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde to the shorter Oscar Wilde, and eventually to a name he chose himself, Sebastian Melmoth. Frankel’s explanation of these changes added to the rest of his lecture on Wilde’s life and interests to provide us with a unique perspective on the writer and his works.
On the whole, Frankel’s presentation gave a very interesting and unique view of Oscar Wilde’s life. While the lecture itself did not touch very much on the actual works of Wilde, or his potential links to disability, it did give insight into his personal motivations which connect to these topics. Ultimately, regardless of any direct connections between this lecture and our course, I felt that it was an informative and beneficial experience, which emphasized how understanding an author’s life and motivations can enrich one’s understanding of their works as well.
