Oscar Wilde, Wilfred Owen, and Male Desire

This book reads Oscar Wilde as a queer theorist and Wilfred Owen as his symbolic son. It centers on the concept of 'male procreation', or the generation of new ideas through an erotic but non-physical connection between two men, and it sees Owen as both a product and a continuation of this Wildean tradition.

James Campbell pursues with considerable success an ambitious speculative argument concerning how Oscar Wilde conceived of his own sexuality (by contrast with the currently prevalent object-oriented thinking about homosexuality) and how his self-conception influenced Wilfred Owen. His highly suggestive, well-written book deserves the attention of scholars writing on Wilde, on queer theory, on the poetry of World War I, and on military masculinity. His multiperspectival study raises significant questions that other scholars will respond to and pursue. (John Paul Riquelme, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, Vol. 61 (3), 2018)

Auteur
James Campbell is Associate Professor of English at the University of Central Florida, USA.

Contenu

Acknowledgements A Guide to Abbreviations Introduction 1. Sexual Gnosticism: Male Procreation and The Portrait of Mr W. H. 2. Shades of Green and Gray: Dual Meanings in Wilde's Novel 3. Love of the Impossible: Wilde's Failed Queer Theory 4. Oscar and Sons: The Afterlife of Male Procreation 5. Priests of Keats: Wilfred Owen's Pre-War Relationship to Wilde 6. OW/WH/WO: Wilfred Owen as Symbolic Son of Oscar Wilde Afterword Notes Bibliography Index