Abstract
Abstract Re-reading Wilde’s Aestheticism: The Subversion in The Picture of Dorian Gray Until the 1980s, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was generally considered to be a flawed novel. This study aims to justify The Picture of Dorian Gray as Wilde’s aesthetic presentation and exploration of the Victorian morality in terms of allegorical reading. My thesis re-examines the nineteenth-century literary Aesthetic tradition, tracing from Pre-Raphaelite movement postulated by Ruskin, through Walter Pater’s influence, to Oscar Wilde’s advocacy of Art for Art’s Sake. From the perspective of Irish cultural nationalism, I discuss how Wilde has rebelled against the British imperialism. In Wilde’s case, as a doubly marginalized status, he has to subvert the powerful British authority and cultural hegemony by his aesthetic creation. My research focuses on analyzing the conflicts between the Victorian moral doctrines and Wilde’s aesthetic conception in The Picture of Dorian Gray. This conflicts, actually, is Wilde’s subversion against the British cultural imperialism by unmasking the colonial strategy. My thesis concludes that through Wilde’s aesthetic exemplification in The Picture of Dorian Gray, he conveys his persistent resistance against Victorian moral hypocrisy.