The Fairy Tales of Oscar WildeAshgate, 2007 - 194 pages Oscar Wilde's two collections of children's literature, The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891), have often been marginalised in critical accounts as their apparently conservative didacticism appears at odds with the characterisation of Wilde as an amoral aesthete. In this, the first full-length study of Wilde's fairy tales for children, Jarlath Killeen argues that Wilde's stories are neither uniformly conservative nor subversive, but a blend of both. Killeen contends that while they should be read in relation to a literary tradition of fairy tales that emerged in nineteenth century Europe; Irish issues heavily influenced the work. These issues were powerfully shaped by the 'folk Catholicism' Wilde encountered in the west of Ireland. By resituating the fairy tales in a complex nexus of theological, political, social, and national concerns, Killeen restores the tales to their proper place in the Wilde canon. |
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aesthetic argues beautiful believed Catholic Church Catholicism Charles Charles Duffy Charles Stewart Parnell child children's literature Christ Christian claims colonial critics culture death devotional revolution discourse divine Dublin Dwarf economic England English fairy tale fairy tales Famine father female figure Fisherman folk-Catholicism folklore friendship garden goddess Happy Prince House of Pomegranates ibid imagery imagination Immaculate Conception Infanta Ireland Irish Famine Irish immigrants Jack Zipes Jesus King's land landlord London male Marian Marian apparitions masculinity medieval Mermaid middle-class Miller modern moral mother myth narrative nation nature Nightingale nineteenth century oral Oscar Wilde Philomela points political poor position priests Protestant Protestantism radical reading relationship religion religious Remarkable Rocket represents rituals rose sacrifice salvation Selfish Giant sexual simply social society soul spiritual Star-Child subversive symbolic tenant theology traditional transformation Victorian Virgin Mary W.B. Yeats Wilde's Wilde's story women worship writing Young King Zipes