Representations of masculinity and the victorian new man in Olive Schreiner’s the story of an African farm and Oscar Wilde’s the picture of Dorian Gray
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Date
2024
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University of the Western Cape
Abstract
“Representations of Masculinity and the Victorian New Man in Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray” The thesis comparatively reads representations of masculinity in Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm (1883) and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The thesis aims to read representations of masculinities in Schreiner and Wilde’s novels, arguing that Waldo Farber and Dorian Gray do not exhibit hegemonic masculine values, but rather manifest qualities usually ascribed to women in ways that unfold new ways of reading the self and the self in the making in both novels. It aims to closely analyse and engage key junctures in the novel where conventional masculinity is held up for scrutiny, and to ask what arguments and insights emerge in the narratives concerning selfhood, manhood, and by extension womanhood in the late Victorian period. Schreiner subverts gender constructions by gender role reversal to redefine the Victorian narrative. This can be seen in Waldo’s character and by extension Lyndall’s whereby Waldo is unconventionally portrayed with effeminate characteristics and Lyndall pursues an agency and independence that contravenes Victorian ideological constructions of femininity, and thus, reading as more masculine than Waldo at certain junctures. It is in these reversals that new forms of, and arguments concerning femininities and masculinities emerge. Comparatively, Wilde draws upon the ‘unstable’ aspects of the male characters and the consequences they endure from it, showing a corruption in manhood and
morality. It can be argued that Waldo and Dorian display qualities of the Victorian New Man as they do not display hegemonic masculine values but rather feminine and sensible qualities, undoing gender dogmas. The purpose of this thesis is to explore nuanced and subtle interplays
of representations of masculinity in both novels, arguing that these raise important questions and critiques regarding the Victorian New Man, and consequently, the New Woman that Schreiner and Wilde were deeply concerned about, and concertedly tried to reconfigure both
in their fictions and private lives. Schreiner’s feminism of challenging gender roles and colonial patriarchal power through Gothic elements as well as Wilde’s use of the Gothic as a lens to critique the unrealistic ideals of masculinity and morality and the character’s deviance and
challenge to ideological identities underpin this exploration.
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Keywords
Olive Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, masculinity, femininity