<b>Impossible promise: the child and the androgyne in Thomas Kilroy's The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde and My Scandalous Life</b><br>

Autores

  • José Lanters University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2010n58p267

Resumo

In The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde and My Scandalous Life, the impossible ideals of perfect harmony between the sexes and perfect innocence are symbolically represented by the figures of the Androgyne and the child. In a process that illustrates the Wildean paradox that "each man kills the thing he loves," Oscar and Constance Wilde on the one hand, Alfred Douglas and Olive Custance on the other, fight each other over possession of their children, in that very act destroying both the ideal of androgynous harmony and that of childish innocence. Only by performing their worst nightmares, embracing the darkness within themselves, and acknowledging that innocence contains its own corruption, can the characters restore some form of equilibrium.

Biografia do Autor

José Lanters, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

José Lanters is professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, where she also serves on the advisory committee of the Center for Celtic Studies, and on the editorial board of the electronic interdisciplinary journal e-Keltoi. Her numerous publications in the field of Irish literature and culture include Unauthorized Versions: Irish Menippean Satire, 1919-1952 (Catholic University of America Press, 2000) and The 'Tinkers' in Irish Literature: Unsettled Subjects and the Construction of Difference  (Irish Academic Press, 2008). From 2007-09 she served as the president of the American Conference for Irish Studies.

Downloads

Publicado

2010-01-01

Edição

n. 58 (2010)

Seção

Artigos

Licença

A revista Ilha do Desterro publica artigos e resenhas inéditos, referentes as áreas de Inglês, Literaturas em Língua Inglesa e Estudos Culturais. Publica volumes mistos e/ou temáticos, com artigos e resenhas em inglês e português. 

Autores mantém os direitos autorais e concedem à revista o direito de primeira publicação, com o trabalho simultaneamente licenciado sob a Licença Creative Commons Attribution que permite o compartilhamento do trabalho com reconhecimento da autoria e publicação inicial nesta revista.


Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.