Oscar Wilde’s Uncanny Fiction: The Picture of Dorian Gray
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This essay reconsiders Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray as an uncanny text by examining mirror images, repetitions, and doublings. The Picture of Dorian Gray is an uncanny text not simply because it depicts supernatural incidents but because Wilde presents them in elaborate ways in order to produce uncanny sensations for readers. Wilde uses mirrors to remind the futility of mimetic imitation and to recast life in an uncanny light. Mirrors in Wilde’s fiction creates uncanny effects, awakening the beholder to his/her vulnerability. Through multiple repetitions and doublings, furthermore, The Picture of Dorian Gray shows an uncanny world where life does not progress but goes in circle and the boundary between heimlich and unheimlich becomes meaningless. Just as his characters pursue excess in emotion and sensuality, Wilde pursues a style based upon excess that utilizes repetitions, thus violating the Victorian norms of restraint and control. As this violation disturbs readers, The Picture of Dorian Gray becomes a performatively uncanny and uncannily performative text.
Abstract
This essay reconsiders Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray as an uncanny text by examining mirror images, repetitions, and doublings. The Picture of Dorian Gray is an uncanny text not simply because it depicts supernatural incidents but because Wilde presents them in elaborate ways in order to produce uncanny sensations for readers. Wilde uses mirrors to remind the futility of mimetic imitation and to recast life in an uncanny light. Mirrors in Wilde’s fiction creates uncanny effects, awakening the beholder to his/her vulnerability. Through multiple repetitions and doublings, furthermore, The Picture of Dorian Gray shows an uncanny world where life does not progress but goes in circle and the boundary between heimlich and unheimlich becomes meaningless. Just as his characters pursue excess in emotion and sensuality, Wilde pursues a style based upon excess that utilizes repetitions, thus violating the Victorian norms of restraint and control. As this violation disturbs readers, The Picture of Dorian Gray becomes a performatively uncanny and uncannily performative text.
참고문헌 (15)
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