This chapter testifies to the breadth of Arthur Symons’s interests, to his crucial role as subtle critic and cultural mediator between the 19th and 20th centuries, by tracing the genealogy of his assessment concerning the personality and literary production of Oscar Wilde across five decades. An analysis of Symons’s connections, correspondence, reviews and articles is followed by a more specific focus on “A Study of Oscar Wilde” (1930), a so-far neglected volume in which the author partly drew on his previously published works but also endeavoured to provide them with a consistent framework. If occasionally biased or disjointed (a condition characterizing most of Symons’s post-1908 writings), this book reconsiders earlier critical stances going back to the late 1880s and succeeds in offering a final, convincing perspective on Wilde. In various passages, Symons boldly underlines the earnestness of the latter’s artistic commitment in an age in which any Wildean reminiscence encountered general indifference, if not downright oblivion. In the upshot, “A Study of Oscar Wilde” emerges as both a valuable contribution within Symons’s canon and a groundbreaking example of Wilde’s serious reception during Modernism. It marked a change in direction in 1930s’ Wilde scholarship and anticipated, among others, Vincent O’Sullivan’s commendable “Aspects of Wilde” (1936).

Il saggio si propone di testimoniare l’ampiezza degli interessi di Arthur Symons, nonché il suo fondamentale ruolo di critico e mediatore culturale a cavallo tra Otto e Novecento, ricomponendo il mosaico delle valutazioni da lui espresse su Oscar Wilde (uomo e artista) nell’arco di mezzo secolo. A un’analisi delle frequentazioni e di alcuni scritti miscellanei di Symons (lettere, recensioni, articoli) segue una focalizzazione su “A Study of Oscar Wilde” (1930), volume finora trascurato dalla critica nel quale l’autore rielaborò estratti dalle proprie opere precedenti integrandoli in una struttura più coesa e con un chiaro intento progettuale. Benché talora vi affiorino contrasti e sbavature tipici della produzione successiva al 1908 (l’anno drammatico del crollo nervoso di Symons), questo libro della maturità traccia un interessante percorso retrospettivo che si conclude fornendo un quadro esegetico sostanzialmente convincente. In più di una circostanza, inoltre, Symons evidenzia coraggiosamente la serietà della “devozione artistica” di Wilde in un’epoca che, come quella modernista, appariva a dir poco scettica nei confronti dell’esteta irlandese. L’elaborato si prefigge dunque di mostrare come “A Study of Oscar Wilde” debba considerarsi sia un’opera significativa all’interno del macrotesto di Symons, sia un raro esempio di apprezzamento di Wilde nella prima metà del Novecento. È lecito ipotizzare che questo volume del 1930 abbia siglato un cambiamento di direzione negli studi wildiani, anticipando, tra gli altri, il valido “Aspects of Wilde” (1936) di Vincent O’Sullivan.

“Serious in the Reality of his Devotion to Art”: The Genealogy of Symons’s Assessment in “A Study of Oscar Wilde”

Laura Giovannelli
2018-01-01

Abstract

This chapter testifies to the breadth of Arthur Symons’s interests, to his crucial role as subtle critic and cultural mediator between the 19th and 20th centuries, by tracing the genealogy of his assessment concerning the personality and literary production of Oscar Wilde across five decades. An analysis of Symons’s connections, correspondence, reviews and articles is followed by a more specific focus on “A Study of Oscar Wilde” (1930), a so-far neglected volume in which the author partly drew on his previously published works but also endeavoured to provide them with a consistent framework. If occasionally biased or disjointed (a condition characterizing most of Symons’s post-1908 writings), this book reconsiders earlier critical stances going back to the late 1880s and succeeds in offering a final, convincing perspective on Wilde. In various passages, Symons boldly underlines the earnestness of the latter’s artistic commitment in an age in which any Wildean reminiscence encountered general indifference, if not downright oblivion. In the upshot, “A Study of Oscar Wilde” emerges as both a valuable contribution within Symons’s canon and a groundbreaking example of Wilde’s serious reception during Modernism. It marked a change in direction in 1930s’ Wilde scholarship and anticipated, among others, Vincent O’Sullivan’s commendable “Aspects of Wilde” (1936).
2018
Giovannelli, Laura
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/940177
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