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WILDE' TIMES: A MARXIST READING OF OSCAR WILDE'S THE HAPPY PRINCE

Bu makalenin amacı, Oscar Wildeın, kapitalist Viktoria toplumunda gösterdiği sosyal bilince sahip duruşunuonun çocuk hikayelerinden Mutlu Prens bağlamında sergilemektir. Wildeın günümüze kadar her alandaSanat Sanat İçindir parolasını savunan ve sanatçının okuyucuya karşı yükümsüz olduğunu, aynı zamandada ahlâkî açıdan bir zorunluluğu olamayacağını ileri süren estetik akımla özdeşleştirildiği su götürmez birgerçektir. Ancak, Wildeın başlıca masalları, daha derin bir ahlâkî yükümlülük ve örtülü bir eleştiri boyutu ilebu iddiayla çelişir gibi görünmektedir. Oscar Wildeın Mutlu Prens adlı masalı görünürde, bir prensin altın heykeli ile bir küçük kırlangıçın,şehirlerinde yaşayan fakirlere ve ezilenlere yardım etme çabalarının romantik öyküsünü anlatır. Ancak, dahaderin bir inceleme göstermektedir ki bu öykü batılı kapitalist ideoloj ilere karşı çok daha etkin bir eleştirelMarxist bakışa sahiptir. Bu bağlamda, zamanının sosyal konulardan uzak, ünlü estetik sanatçısı Wilde, ahlâkîamaçlar güden, Marxist düşüncenin bir savunucusu olarak da değerlendirilebilecektir.

ZOR ZAMANLAR: OSCAR WILDE IN MUTLU PRENS ADLI MASALINA MARXİST BİR BAKIŞ

The aim of this article is to display the socially conscious stance of Oscar Wilde in the capitalist Victoriansociety with a deeper vision of it in his children s stories, especially The Happy Prince . It is an indisputablefact that Wilde has always been associated with the aesthetic movement of Art for Art s Sake , whichsupported the irresponsibility of the artist towards the reader or audience and defiance of moral obligations.However, Wilde s major fairy tales seem to be contradicting with this claim with their deep moral code andveiled criticism of the present situation of the society. Oscar Wilde s The Happy Prince tells, on the surface level, the romantic story of a golden statue of a princeand a little swallow in their struggle for helping the poor and the suppressed in their city. On a deeper level,the story takes a much more critical vision and functions as a Marxist criticism of the capitalist westernideologies. In this respect, the famous irresponsible aesthete of his time may be regarded as an employerof Marxist thinking with a moral purpose.

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