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Being Wilde

Social representation of the public image of Oscar Wilde
  • Minna Nevala and Arja Nurmi
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Late Modern English
This chapter is in the book Late Modern English

Abstract

This article focuses on the news reporting on Oscar Wilde during the 1895 trials in which he was accused of sodomy and gross indecency. We discuss the positive and negative labelling associated with Wilde during and after the trials. Our data are drawn from the British Library Newspapers, consisting of over 1,500 articles from a variety of both rural and metropolitan British newspapers. Our results demonstrate that during the course of the trials, the reference to Wilde shows not only variation, but also change: his public persona changes from a well-known author to an accused criminal.

Abstract

This article focuses on the news reporting on Oscar Wilde during the 1895 trials in which he was accused of sodomy and gross indecency. We discuss the positive and negative labelling associated with Wilde during and after the trials. Our data are drawn from the British Library Newspapers, consisting of over 1,500 articles from a variety of both rural and metropolitan British newspapers. Our results demonstrate that during the course of the trials, the reference to Wilde shows not only variation, but also change: his public persona changes from a well-known author to an accused criminal.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Phonology
  6. “A received pronunciation” 21
  7. The interplay of internal and external factors in varieties of English 43
  8. Part II. Morphosyntax
  9. The myth of American English gotten as a historical retention 67
  10. Changes affecting relative clauses in Late Modern English 91
  11. Diffusion of do 117
  12. A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray 143
  13. Part III. Orthography, vocabulary and semantics
  14. In search of “the lexicographic stamp” 167
  15. “Divided by a common language”? 185
  16. Women writers in the 18th century 203
  17. Eighteenth-century French cuisine terms and their semantic integration in English 219
  18. Spelling normalisation of Late Modern English 243
  19. Part IV. Pragmatics and discourse
  20. A far from simple matter revisited 271
  21. What it means to describe speech 295
  22. Being Wilde 315
  23. “I am desired (…) to desire” 333
  24. Index 357
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.214.14nev

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Phonology
  6. “A received pronunciation” 21
  7. The interplay of internal and external factors in varieties of English 43
  8. Part II. Morphosyntax
  9. The myth of American English gotten as a historical retention 67
  10. Changes affecting relative clauses in Late Modern English 91
  11. Diffusion of do 117
  12. A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray 143
  13. Part III. Orthography, vocabulary and semantics
  14. In search of “the lexicographic stamp” 167
  15. “Divided by a common language”? 185
  16. Women writers in the 18th century 203
  17. Eighteenth-century French cuisine terms and their semantic integration in English 219
  18. Spelling normalisation of Late Modern English 243
  19. Part IV. Pragmatics and discourse
  20. A far from simple matter revisited 271
  21. What it means to describe speech 295
  22. Being Wilde 315
  23. “I am desired (…) to desire” 333
  24. Index 357
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