Oscar Wilde and Socialism

CFP: Oscholars Special Issue

Call for Papers

Oscholars Special Issue Spring 2010

The Soul of Man: Oscar Wilde and Socialism

H.G. Wells once wrote that Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man Under Socialism offers "an artist's view of socialism, but not a socialist's." George Orwell, reviewing the essay in 1948, called Wilde's vision of socialism "Utopian and anarchistic." So was Oscar Wilde a socialist? an anarchist? an "individualist"? or politically unquantifiable? He was acquainted with the leading socialists of the time, from William Morris to G. B. Shaw, his sympathy for socialist and anarchist ideas was well known, and The Soul of Man attained great popularity with the radical movements of Central and Eastern Europe and the USA. This refereed special issue of Oscholars, a widely read electronic journal devoted to Wilde and the fin de siècle, solicits essays on any aspect of The Soul of Man or, more broadly, Wilde in relation to socialism and anarchism.

Please submit 300-word proposals to Anna Vaninskaya at [mailto]av323@cam.ac.uk[/mailto] by 15 July 2009.
The deadline for submission of completed essays (1500-2500 words) is 15 December 2009.

For more information about Oscholars and to view previous special issues please consult [url]http://www.oscholars.com/[/url]