ABSTRACT

Recent years have seen a noted divergence between academic and commemorative treatments of Oscar Wilde. Both have placed the transnational and queer dimensions of Wilde’s identity at the fore, but scholars have also emphasised its orientalist and imperialist facets, while artists and devotees has pared down those less palatable qualities. This paper takes one tribute – Peter McGough and David McDermott’s Oscar Wilde Temple (2017–2019) – as a case study to explore the politics of queer commemoration. By first situating the Temple in a history of Wilde commemorations, I define a set of selection criteria on which any such monument must arbitrate. I then use those criteria to close read the Temple’s iconography, attending to representations of queer, Catholic, and Irish identity before addressing the politics of canonising Wilde given his participation in systems of colonial and racial injustice. Instead of grounds to dismiss Wilde’s art and its contemporary supporters, I take those politics as a challenge to imagine more critical and intersectional approaches to queer commemoration. My conclusion turns from theory to praxis to explore how models of queer myth-making and counterpublics might be concretised to develop such alternatives.

摘要

近年来，奥斯卡·王尔德（Oscar Wilde）的学术和纪念疗法之间出现了明显的分歧。两者都将王尔德身份的跨国性和酷儿性放在了首位，但是学者们也强调了王尔德的东方主义和帝国主义方面，而艺术家和奉献者则削减了那些较不宜人的品质。本文以彼得·麦高（Peter McGough）和大卫·麦克德莫特（David McDermott）的奥斯卡·王尔德神庙（Oscar Wilde Temple，2017年至2019年）致敬为例，探讨了酷儿纪念的政治。通过在王尔德的纪念历史中首先确定圣殿的位置，我定义了一组选择标准，任何此类古迹都必须据此进行仲裁。然后，我使用这些标准来仔细阅读圣殿的肖像画，同时关注古怪，天主教，和爱尔兰的身份，然后再处理王尔德的政治化，因为他参与了殖民和种族不公正制度。我没有以驳斥王尔德的艺术及其当代支持者为理由，而是以那些政治为挑战，以想象采用更多批判性和交叉性的酷儿纪念活动。我的结论从理论转向实践，以探索如何将怪异的神话和反政府的模型具体化以开发此类替代方案。