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Life imitating art. Anti-mimesis is a philosophical position that holds the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis. Its most notable proponent is Oscar Wilde, who opined in his 1889 essay that, "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life". In the essay, written as a Platonic dialogue, Wilde holds that anti- mimesis "results not merely ...
What did Oscar Wilde mean when he wrote that “life imitates art far more than art imitates life”? Simply put, this quote from The Decay of Lying (1891) is about how art affects the way we look at the world around us.
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Oct 16, 2017 · The idea that life imitates art is one of Oscar’s best yet most often misunderstood. It is central to his philosophy and to his own life. Take The Decay of Lying, for example, an essay in the form of a dialogue that he wrote in the late 1880s.
- Childhood
- Early Education and Training
- Mature Period
- Later Period
- Downfall
- The Legacy of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born into a family of professional and literary parents. His father, Sir William Wilde, was Ireland's preeminent ear and eye surgeon and a philanthropist and writer who published books on archaeology, peasant folklore and a biography of the satirist Jonathan Swift. Wilde's mother, Jane, a committed Irish nat...
A pupil at the Portora Royal School in Enniskillen between 1864-71, Wilde was already gaining a reputation as something of a wunderkind. He demonstrated an early prowess for humorous storytelling and excelled in reading the classics. He also took to languages, becoming fluent in French and German. Wilde went on to win awards for his translations of...
In 1881 Wilde published (at his own expense) his first poetry collection, Poems. Drawing heavily on the likes of Algernon Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Keats (a little too heavily for some critics') it drew mixed notices. The satirical magazine Punch, which lampooned Aestheticism as an effeminate art form, singled out Wilde as its lite...
It was, however, for Wilde's society stage comedies, executed in the strict style of drama known as the pièce bien faite ("well made play") that he would become best known. His first stage success was the comedy of manners, Lady Windermere's Fan, first performed in 1892. Set in London, the play involves a jealous wife whose husband's becomes closel...
In 1891 Wilde had been introduced to the 21-year-old Lord Alfred Douglas, who was studying at Oxford. They embarked on an indiscreet and tempestuous affair, with the infatuated Wilde indulging the spoilt Douglas's every whim. Douglas introduced Wilde into the world of gay prostitution, and illicit meetings with working-class boys. Their relationshi...
Although Wilde did not contribute directly to the plastic arts, stylistically, Aubrey Beardsley's illustration for Wilde's play Salomé helped promote the florid decoration of Art Nouveau and the illustrations of artists such as William Rothenstein. Indeed, Wilde was a giant presence within the Aesthetic movement, promoting its values through his wr...
- Irish
- October 16, 1854
- Dublin, Ireland
- November 30, 1900
Oct 25, 2023 · Anti-mimesis, a philosophical position that holds the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis, the concept of art imitating life, believes that life imitates art, that creative inspiration...
Thus, Jack’s life imitates and even becomes a work of art. Jack goes beyond creating one fictional identity for himself, how-ever, and creates a fictional brother, Ernest, who further demonstrates Jack’s adherence to Wilde’s aesthetic understanding of life and literature.
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Dec 12, 2023 · We often assume that art's primary purpose is to imitate life, to capture reality as accurately as possible. However, Wilde's quote forces us to reevaluate this assumption. Rather than seeking to replicate life in a literal sense, art thrives on complexity, subjectivity, and imaginative interpretation.
