![]() ![]() What is it then? It can be argued that by refusing a specific genre Oscar Wilde produces a discourse on theatrical art. The play thus looks like a comedy of manners but it is something else. It has all the elements of a comedy of manners: the title delivered as a punchline to the proceedings, the marriage problem, the foundling child, the idea of the double life, the highly-formalised style of language, the fast-moving verbal exchanges and a lot of entrances and exits. The choice of genre seems to say “beware of appearances,” which is one of the themes of the play. As the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan said in the 1960s “the medium is the message” and Wilde uses the form to speak of the content. It is cleverly done so that the audience may ignore the subversive politics in the play if it chooses to. ![]() However, he manages to combine commercial success with conservative audiences whilst mocking the very conventions that these audiences are supposed to live by. Because he can’t afford to shock his audience too much and needs success for financial reasons his attack is not frontal. In so doing Wilde keeps the appearances of a genre the audience is familiar with but subverts it with great subtlety. 2 He also draws on the popular forms of melodrama and farce. By importing a popular and successful French form he could thus conceal his attack on official order and discourse while making English audiences laugh at their own values and beliefs. ![]() He often used this convenient formal frame to structure his society comedies. 4 Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, version bilingue (traduction de Gérard Hardin), Pocke (.)ĤIn an article published this year in Études irlandaises, Pascal Aquien argues that 19th century French bourgeois drama exerted a powerful influence on Wilde’s dramatic works.2 Pascal Aquien, “Sardoodledum Revisited, or a Few Trivial Remarks about Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husba (.).In this paper I will examine the way in which Wilde’s text challenged and conformed at the same time. However, I would argue that more generally, despite very little room for manœuvre, he managed brilliantly to challenge the social norms, sexual stereotypes and gender representations of his time while pleasing aristocratic London socialites. Nevertheless, some critics have argued that the playwright dared include homosexual connotations in the text. Oscar Wilde was gay in a society stifled by social conventions and governed by very tough laws on homosexuality. However, the writing of the play relies on a creativity and richness that combine different styles. When first performed, the play was considered as a light comedy and classified as entertainment for Victorian society. For example, the “Théâtre Antoine” in Paris produced it in October 2006 (on tour until March 2008) and a Versailles company performed it at “Le Lucernaire” in September and October 2008. The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde is a popular play that is still widely performed in English-language theatres and also in many other languages. ![]()
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