Oscar's Shadow: Wilde, Homosexuality and Modern Ireland

Oscar Wilde was the most famous gay Irishman and Oscar's Shadow deals with Wilde and his homosexuality within the context of Ireland and of Irish cultural perceptions of his sexuality. The book investigates the questions: What was 'Oscar's shadow', his influence on twentieth and twenty-first century Irish culture and literature? What has Oscar Wilde meant to Ireland from his disgrace in May 1895 up to the present? Walshe presents Oscar's shadow in Ireland from 1895 to the present, using contemporary Irish newspaper reports of the Wilde trials of 1895, previously unpublished archival material, and a significant body of Irish critical studies, biographies and dramatisations of Wilde's life and sexuality. If perceptions of sexual identity evolve partly through public events, how then did Irish media and literary sources configure Wilde's homosexuality during the Wilde trials and after? Wilde's homosexuality was a contested discourse within twentieth-century Ireland, a discourse that became interconnected with Irish cultural nationalism. Thus Wilde became a weathervane for the rare but contentious discussions of homosexuality in Ireland, and his life and his writings usefully intertwine within these debates. Oscar's Shadow sets the historical context for cultural and legal perceptions of homosexuality in Ireland. This book is the first study of the formation of the idea of homosexuality in Ireland into the twentieth century and centres on an account of Wilde's visible presence as sexual 'other', analysing the strategies of normalisation used to police his unnameable sin within Irish media and literary accounts. Walshe argues that Wilde in Irish culture was perceived not so much as Oscar Wilde the unspeakable but much more as Oscar Wilde the dissident Irishman. Wilde, famous for his writings and notorious for his sexuality, is central for perceptions of homosexuality in modern Ireland

About the Author :
Eibhear Walshe is a senior lecturer in the Department of Modern English at University College Cork. He is the editor of Ordinary People Dancing: Essays on Kate O'Brien (Cork University Press, 1993), Sex, Nation and Dissent, (Cork University Press, 1997), Elizabeth Bowen's Selected Irish Writings (2011)

Review :
"Walsh's fascinating and meticulously researched new book examined unpublished archival material and delves into a wealth of Irish critical studies and dramatizations of Wilde's life and sexuality." A masterpiece of cultural studies scholarship, this book explores how the figure of the controversial Oscar Wilde has served as a Rorschach test for the people of Ireland, who have view him as a reflection of their own hopes and fears and have not perceived and promulgated a defensibly accurate vision of the man himself. Using extensive, meticulous research, Walshe (English, Univ. College Cork) demonstrates how the Irish were less eager than the British and Americans to condemn Wilde for his homosexuality, and how they initially ignored or excused his sexual orientation by recasting him as an anti-imperialish and an Irish patriot. Walshe considers how th eprogress of Ireland's social evolution has boded well for Wilde's cultural/literary reputation, but concludes by offering sobering thoughts about how far the Irish people still need to go before they can truly fashion an inclusve nation for themselves. A must purchase for academic libraries, this book complements other titles that consider the (mis)representations of legendary authors and the construction of their posthuous reputations, such as John Wiltshier's "Recreating Jane Austen " (CH, Mar'02, 39-3858) and John Rodden's "The Politics of Literary Reputations: The Making and Claiming of "St. George" Orwell" (CH, Oct'89, 27-0826). Summing Up: Highly Recommended.