Adorning Daoism: Oscar Wilde's Aesthetic Reimagining of the Zhuangzi

Abstract

In 1890, Oscar Wilde read Herbert A. Giles’ translation of the Zhuangzi, after which he wrote an essay describing the Sage and his ideas. In “A Chinese Sage,” Wilde attempts to decipher the stories in the Zhuangzi and translate them to his contemporary reality. Despite his clear interest in the topic and explicit references to Zhuangzi in his essays, his fictional work has never been extensively examined from a Daoist perspective. In order to address this gap in research, this thesis aims to answer the question: How do Daoist concepts inform Wilde’s British aesthetic creative works? By diffractively reading Wilde's creative works through a Daoist lens, this thesis seeks to contribute to the discussion of cultural comparison in literary analysis, particularly advocating for methods that avoid Eurocentrism, reject notions of incommensurability, and embrace the potential of finding interconnections across seemingly disparate traditions. This examination reveals significant resonances between Daoist concepts and Wilde's themes. In this thesis, I examine the Daoist concepts of Dao (the Way or Course), Wu Wei (effortless action), and Wu Hua (Transformation), demonstrating how Wilde creatively reinterprets them to inform his aesthetic and moral philosophies.