Oscar Wilde’s immense literary success afforded him various modes of international travel, whether it be moving from Dublin to London for most of his professional career or producing plays in Paris. However, his particular brand of intellectual individualism warranted him as much fame as infamy; the latter, unfortunately, shone a light on his discrete homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. As such, Wilde’s sense of individualism was simultaneously the predicate for his freedom for traveling abroad as well as primary constraint for travel while he was imprisoned. This project, “Agency and Individuality: The Travels and Travails of Oscar,” accounts for the paradoxical sense of Wilde’s freedom of movement through his personal accounts to Lord Alfred Douglas and his personal writings while in jail.
 

Works Cited

Primary

  • Wilde, Oscar, and ProQuest. De Profundis. New York: Open Road Media, 2015.
  • Wilde, Oscar, and Ulrich Baer. My Own Dear Darling Boy: The Letters of Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas. New York : Warbler Press, 2021.

Reference

  • "Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde." In Encyclopedia of World Biography Online. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1998. Gale In Context: Biography (accessed April 27, 2022). 
  • Edwards, Owen Dudley. "Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills (1854–1900), writer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 27 Apr. 2022. 

Scholarship

  • Youngs, Tim. “Oscar Wilde: ‘An Unclean Beast.’” In Beastly Journeys: Travel and Transformation at the Fin de Siècle, 165–96. Liverpool University Press, 2013. 

Images

  • Bunning, J. B., and Trego, W. The First Stone and Inlaid Coins of Holloway Prison.  Lithograph by C.M. Firth. Prints, border 37.8 x 45.2 cm. Wellcome Collection.
  • Deutsche Erfindungen and Giotto. Firenze. Campanile Del Duomo (Giotto) [Florence. Bell Tower of the Cathedral (Giotto)]. Postcards, 14 x 9 (5.51 x 3.54 inches). Trinity College, Watkinson Library .
  • Gerrit van Honthorst. Saint Sebastian. Images, 101 x 117 cm. The National Gallery,  London; Bought, 1930. 
  • Harry Moult. Wandsworth Bridge, Chelsea. From the Album: Photograph Album - London. Photographs. of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa. Collection: Photography. 
  • Jean Eugène Auguste Atget Corner of the Rue de Seine and the Rue de l’Échaude. Images, Mounting Sheet: 8 11/16 x 6 15/16 in. (22.1 x 17.6 cm); sheet: 8 7/16 x 6 3/4 in. (21.5 x 17.2 cm). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; Williamstown, MA.
  • Nazimova in Oscar Wilde’s Salome. Images. https://jstor.org/stable/community.14655478.
  • Oscar Wilde : As Photographed by Sarony upon His Arrival in New York. Digital Images, MET.
  • Sarony, Napoleon. "Oscar Wilde  / Sarony," Photograph, 1882. Library of Congress,  Accessed May 11, 2022. Library of Congress.
  • Storage Reservoir at Claremont Square, Pentonville, under Construction. Wood Engraving, 1856. Engravings, image 15 x 23.5 cm. Wellcome Collection.  
  • Thomas Nast, and Sitter: Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde as Narcissus. Images, Sheet: 9 7/16 × 11 3/16 in. (23.9 × 28.4 cm).  The MET. 
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