No Artist Has Ethical Sympathies
Oscar Wilde, Aesthetics, and Moral Evolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7535305 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Caroline Sumpter (0000-0002-8687-3560, Queen's University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 623-640 |
| Publication date | 2016-08-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Victorian Literature and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1060-1503 • E-ISSN: 1470-1553 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1060150316000127 |
| OpenAlex | W2511278305 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 13 |
There is no mode of action , no form of emotion, that we do not share with the lower animals” (137). This evolutionary claim is not attributable to Darwin, but to Oscar Wilde, who allows Gilbert to voice this bold assertion in “The True Function of Criticism.” While critics have long wrestled with the ethical stance and coherence of Wilde's writings, they have overlooked a significant influence on his work: debates concerning the evolution of morality that animated the periodicals in which he was writing. Wilde was fascinated by the proposition that complex human behaviours, including moral and aesthetic responses, might be traced back to evolutionary impulses. Significantly, he also wrote for a readership already engaged with these controversies
Action (physics · Aesthetics · Art · Assertion · Criticism · Epistemology · Literature · Morality · Proposition · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Legal and Social Philosophy · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |