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Charivari or the Historicising of a Question |
57www.jrfm.eu
2018, 4/2, 55â66
with famous contemporary artists and intellectuals of Dublinâs local scene. He
thus received âthe socialization of artistsâ.3 He enjoyed an outstanding educa-
tion in classical philology. As a student, he became a member of a freemasonsâ
lodge.4 Wilde is to be viewed as an integral part of âthe artistic fieldâ, the very
specific element of modern society which Andreas Reckwitz sees as responsible
for the formation of the creativity dispositif.5 The successful but controversial
author was not just a prominent but formative part of the contemporary artis-
tic avant-garde. He paradigmatically embodied dandyism in his time. Wilde was
an outstanding representative of literary aestheticism, and his whole existence
must be attributed to the modern âaesthetic of geniusâ.6 Retrospectively he
can appear as the personified icon of individualism.7
This individualistic aestheticization drew from the concept of romantic love,
in which English sentimentalism played a crucial role.8 The sentimentalist ideal of
love became central, albeit in reconstructed form, to Wildeâs own iterations of
love.9 During the 18th century, a critical backlash against âaristocratic and agrar-
ian traditionalismâ had culminated in the romantic novel and theatre. Thus, a
normative concept of romantic love became a constitutive part of âbourgeois
modernityâ, which structured Europeâs 19th century socio-culturally.10
Wildeâs play A Woman of No Importance revolves around romantic love, by
which the self-determining bourgeoisie appears to have distinguished itself
from the aristocracy. The question we are exploring is posed in the fourth act
by the bourgeois character Miss Hester Worsley and refers to a historically spe-
cific emanation of love. This love dissociated itself from traditional and aristo-
cratic forms of convenient love, but it stemmed from a thin, privileged and elit-
ist social stratum, in which at the time it was exclusively disseminated.11 The
bourgeois dispositif of romantic culture raised passionate love to its own end.
Thus, passionate love became the essence of the modern marital relationship.
Henceforth, according to the ideal of romantic love, no one was to marry for
convenience; one should marry for âpureâ, which is to say self-referential and
ing that none of the usual translations â âbourgeoisâ, âmiddle classâ and âcitizenâ or âcivil societyâ â can
do justice toâ, Reckwitz 2017, 33.
3 Reckwitz 2017, 38.
4 Ellmann 1988, 3â50.
5 Reckwitz 2017, 33â37.
6 For the genesis of the aesthetic of genius cf. Reckwitz 2017, 38.
7 On Wildeâs (self-)iconization cf. Reckwitz 2017, 160â162.
8 Luhmann 1986, 145.
9 Wilde not only adapted this ideal in his writings but also integrated it into his personal life: âWilde
wanted a consuming passion; he got it and was consumed by itâ, Ellmann 1988, 362. At a certain point
in his life, he lived out his homosexual love relatively openly, which was not âconvenientâ for his con-
temporaries at all; see Ellmann 1988, 258â262.
10 Reckwitz 2017, 202â203.
11 On the genesis of romantic love see Giddens 1992, 38â41, and Luhmann 1986, 129â144.
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/02
- Title
- JRFM
- Subtitle
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Volume
- 04/02
- Authors
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Editor
- Uni-Graz
- Publisher
- SchĂźren Verlag GmbH
- Location
- Graz
- Date
- 2018
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Size
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Pages
- 135
- Categories
- Zeitschriften JRFM