Professor of English Chris Foss delivered a talk titled “The Gospel According to Oscar: Progressive Politics and Social Critique in Wilde’s ‘The Young King’” on Oct. 12 in New York City.
Foss was one of three speakers of the night for an event organized by Felicia Ruff of Wagner College as the first of a series of events being sponsored by The LGBT Center of New York and The Church of the Village in conjunction with The Oscar Wilde Temple, a new public art installation by renowned artists David McDermott and Peter McGough. The installation is running from Sept. 12 through Dec. 2 in New York, after which it moves to London in 2018.
In his talk, Foss argued that the Gospel according to Oscar as embodied in his fairy tales (and in “The Young King” in particular) reveals Wilde to be a writer whose deep and abiding concern with social justice should inspire activist as well as aestheticist admiration and devotion.
