originally published in German as Oscar Wilde: Das literarische Werk zwischen Provokation und Anpassung, by Carl Winter Universitätsverlag 1980.

from the 'European Studies in English Literature' series by Cambridge University Press.

This is the most complete study of Oscar Wilde's work yet undertaken. (to date 1989--page creator) Its aim is to gain a new understanding of his literary and critical oeuvre by fully analysing each of his works on the basis of a textually orientated interpretation, also taking account of the biographical and intellectual contexts.

Professor Kohl's starting-point is the thesis that Wilde's identity -- both personal and artistic -- can only be adequately described in terms of a conflict between two opposing forces: individualism and convention. This conflict colours not only Wilde's use of romantic and Victorian images and motifs, but also his modern portrayal of the individual's alienation from society, the loss of transcendent values, the sovereignty of subjectivity and autonomous art, and also his formal experiments with language.

This penetrating and highly readable account of Wilde as a 'conformist rebel', published in German in 1980, is now available for the first time in English.