“Oscar Wilde and His Circle” is a five-week college and university faculty seminar for sixteen participants to explore the life and work and cultural milieu of Oscar Wilde. The seminar, conducted by Joseph Bristow and hosted by UCLA’s Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies, “provides a new group of participants with unique access to a wealth of unpublished documents that throw special light on this legendary Irish writer.” Moreover, this is a “special opportunity to study the complete span of Wilde’s lively career from the 1870s to the late 1890s in relation to an unmatched quantity of manuscript sources.” Participants benefit from the opportunity to make use of a renowned rare book library, where they can identify, locate, and evaluate a range of materials including playbills, theatre programs, and photographs. The seminar discussions delve into scholarship on Wilde and various interpretations of his life and work. Readings for the seminar cover a diverse range of topics: Wilde’s poetry, criticism and fiction including “The Decay of Lying,” “The Critic as Artist,” “The Canterville Ghost,” “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.,” The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lady Windermere’s Fan, The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, De Profundis, and The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Secondary sources to be read and discussed include: Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde; Merlin Holland, The Wilde Album; Josephine Guy and Ian Small, Oscar Wilde’s Profession: Writing and the Culture Industry in the Late Nineteenth Century; Nicholas Frankel, Oscar Wilde’s Decorated Books; John Gray, Silverpoints; and Robert Hichens, The Green Carnation.
