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In early 1895, Oscar Wilde dominated the literary scene. He was a key player in the Decadent literary and artistic movement and was well known on both sides of the Atlantic. His play, 'The Importance of Being Earnest', premiered to ecstatic reviews. But only a few months later, charged with the crime of gross indecency, Wilde was caught in the throes of a moral panic and experienced a spectacular downfall. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and the Decadent movement he championed was no more.
Or was it?
Did Decadence end with Wilde? How far did this late Victorian moral panic last? And what is the lasting impact of Wilde's work? Watch on to find out!
Written, presented, and edited by Rosie Whitcombe
@books_ncats
Directed, produced, and edited by Matty Phillips
@ma_ps_
mphotos.uk
Bibliography
'Art for Art's Sake', https://www.theartstory.org/definition/art-for-art/
Bragg, Melvyn, 'Oscar Wilde', In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 06.12.01, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p00547m3
Cambridge Dictionary (CUP, 2024)
'"Decadent"': Luxury or Decay?', Merriam Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/decadent-word-history-luxury-or-decay
The Decadent Short Story: An Annotated Anthology eds. Boyiopoulos, Choi, and Brinton Tildesley, Matthew (Edinburgh: EUP, 2014)
Denisoff, Dennis, 'Decadence and aestheticism', The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle, ed. Gail Marshall (Cambridge: CUP, 2008)
Dickson, Andrew, Life of Oscar Wilde, https://www.britishlibrary.cn/en/articles/life-of-oscar-wilde/
Donohue, Joseph, 'Reception and performance history of The Importance of Being Earnest', Oscar Wilde in Context, eds. Kerry Powell and Peter Raby (Cambridge: CUP, 2013)
Ellmann, Richard, Oscar Wilde (London: Penguin, 1997)
The Importance of Being Earnest, dir. Anthony Asquith (General Film Distributors, 1952)
The Importance of Being Earnest, dir. Oliver Parker (Miramax, 2002)
Nordau, Max, Degeneration (London: William Heinemann, 1913)
Oxford English Dictionary Online (OUP, 2023)
Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays (Oxford: OUP, 1998)
Music Licenses
Danse Macabre Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Other music used
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Flight of the Bumblebee