Oscar Wilde and the Art of Lying
Utilizing Wilde’s own characters “Vivian” and “Cyril,” this critique in play format begins by discussing the playwright’s ideas on the relation of Art to Life, exploring his pronouncements on the artist’s true purpose. Wilde’s statement about the artist as a “creator of beauty”, found in his “Preface to the Picture of Dorian Gray”, is then examined with regard to his last and most popular play, The Importance of Being Earnest. Discussing …Earnest in extensis, this book discovers whether the elegant artificiality and epigrammatic conceits of contemporary farce prevail as beauty per Wilde’s earlier theories as expressed in The Decay of Lying. The consequence of Wilde’s assault on Victorian values is considered in terms of its social contribution to perceptions of beauty and the way in which we might appreciate both the playwright and …Earnest now.
D.D. Desjardins received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1984. He practiced engineering for ten years, thereafter free-lancing as translator of text. It was also at this time (1993) he wrote his first play, an historical drama, Der Anschluss, researched at Klementinum Library in Prague. This was followed by Young Man of Promise, written at Stanford University (1994) and Lazarro Spallanzani (based on the biography of Paul DeKruif) written at the University of Cracow, in 1996. He then pursued a Master’s in Playwriting at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh, graduating “with distinction” in 2001. Two scripts, A Few Greek Poets and Speculations on the Nature of Heaven and Hell, begun as undergraduate one-acts, were later expanded into full-length plays, the former being successfully produced in Dayton, Ohio in 2004. Several shorter plays, Athos’ Wife (based on Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers) and a dance pantomime, Love in Bloom, were produced by the North Carolina Stage Company. His first French play, Monsieur le Président (2012) enjoyed a successful run at the French Cultural Centre in Bujumbura, Burundi, marking the beginning of his collaboration with Lampyre Theatre Company. His publications also include Philosophy of the Sublime as Theory and Experience (2019).
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