Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
SELCUK UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF FACULTY OF LETTERS, cilt.43, ss.99-110, 2020 (ESCI)
This study aims to determine the function of space and how it is
depicted in Oscar Wilde's (1854-1900) selected poems. Wilde is one of
the important literary and cultural figures of the Victorian era. He
criticized the traditional moral codes and values of the Victorian era
in which he was born and rejected many Victorian poetic aspects. Wilde
used characters and places of ancient Greek mythology in his poems and
developed a poetic sensitivity that focused on the real places and
characters of the city. The brothel, the prison and the streets of
London are some of the places that he used in his poems. Within this
framework, it can be said that Wilde is one of the leading poets who
shaped the fin de siècle poetry. In this study, French thinker Henri
Lefebvre’s (1901-1991) theory of space is applied to discuss the
function of space in Wilde’s poetry. Lefebvre's book The Production of
Space, published in 1974, was influential in the second half of the
twentieth century as it examined the historical development of the
concept of space and evaluated it politically. The analysis of the poems
from Lefebvre’s perspective will reveal Wilde's use of space in
relation to the conflict between past and present, and the attitude of
the individual who wants to escape from society.