Oscar Wilde in Vienna: Pleasing and Teasing the Audience (Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 198)

Book info: Oscar Wilde in Vienna: Pleasing and Teasing the Audience (Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 198) (Hardcover, 400 pages) – Brill, 2018. Language: English.

Oscar Wilde in Vienna is the first book-length study in English of the reception of Oscar Wilde’s works in the German-speaking world. Charting the plays’ history on Viennese stages between 1903 and 2013, it casts a spotlight on the international reputation of one of the most popular English-language writers while contributing to Austrian cultural history in the long twentieth century. Drawing on extensive archival material, the book examines the appropriation of Wilde's plays against the background of political crises and social transformations. It unravels the mechanisms of cultural transfer and canonisation within an environment positioned ― like Wilde himself ― at the crossroads of centre and periphery, tradition and modernity. Editorial Reviews Review "This is not only a fascinating and lucid study suitable for those interested in Wilde’s plays on the stage and in theatre history more generally, but is also ideal for those with an interest in the narratives of appropriation of literature across times and cultures."
-Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 55, Issue 3, July 2019, Pages 355–356, 17 July 2019.
About the Author Sandra Mayer, Ph.D. (2012), University of Vienna, is a Hertha Firnberg Research Fellow in English Literature at the universities of Vienna and Oxford. Her work is situated at the crossroads of literary and cultural history, authorship studies, and life-writing research.