Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Abstract
Roland Barthes's notion of "mad art" (introduced in Camera Lucida)--that is, art which is compelling, arresting, and uncovering-serves as a useful lens through which the portrait in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray may be viewed. In doing so, Wilde's framed image, behaving as mad art, must expose Dorian's authentic self. Such an expose is, importantly, both the product of a spectator's engaged eye as it is the result of a piece which always already contains an essence. When both elements are present (that is, both the essentialness of the art and the engagement of the viewer), the "text" (portrait, musical composition, story) punctures the spectator (Barthes's punctum), and he/she is left forever altered. This alteration along with his rejection of an aging body is, furthermore, exemplified in Dorian's narcissistic obsession with his portrait and resu1ts in his ultimate destruction.
Year of Submission
2005
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of English Language and Literature
First Advisor
Samuel Gladden
Second Advisor
Richard Utz
Third Advisor
Karen Tracey
Date Original
2005
Object Description
1 PDF file (57 leaves)
Copyright
©2005 Sarah Joy Cowger
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Cowger, Sarah Joy, "Mad Art and the Essential Image: Unearthing the Conversation Between Oscar Wilde’s the Picture of Dorian Gray and Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida" (2005). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2397.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2397
Comments
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