JOURNAL ARTICLE

Louis Edwards's Oscar Wilde Discovers America: Gender, Race, and the Judas Kiss of Biofiction.

  • Published In: African American Review, 2023, v. 56, n. 4. P. 337 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Jenkins, Melissa 3 of 3

Abstract

This article draws on Oscar Wilde's collected works to convey new insights about how he is depicted in biofiction, with a focus on Louis Edwards's 2003 novel Oscar Wilde Discovers America. Edwards creates a protagonist who underplays Wilde's marginalization and who struggles to see the interplay between gender, nationality, and race. The distance between character, author, and text facilitates Edwards's interrogation of biofiction itself—its biases, its lapses, and its opportunities. In part one of my analysis, I track the Judas Kiss motif across works by Wilde and within Edwards's reimagining to discuss how biofiction itself hinges on reversal and betrayal. In part two, I examine how Edwards's biofiction corrects for the historical homosociality of life-writing by surfacing the suffering of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:African American Review. 2023/12, Vol. 56, Issue 4, p337
  • Document Type:Literary Criticism
  • Subject Area:History
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:1062-4783
  • DOI:10.1353/afa.2023.a931866
  • Accession Number:178679822
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of African American Review is the property of Johns Hopkins University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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