Date Published:

Abstract:

This article argues that Oscar Wilde’s work employs location to blur the Victorian sense of morality. After surveying Victorian mapping practices as they relate to Wilde and ideas of moral topography, and defining Wilde’s interest in and flaunting of realism, the article shows how Wilde’s more specifically placed texts blur moral boundaries, while morally explicit texts provide only a vague sense of place.

March 2021: Kees de Vries is lecturer in English Language and Culture at the Department of English Language and Culture at the faculty of Arts, University of Groningen, where he specializes in Oscar Wilde and (neo-)Victorian literature, as well as the intersection between music and literature.