‘The Fisherman and his Soul’ Revalued : A Significant and Singular Fairy Tale in Oscar Wilde’s Work

Abstract: The period 1889-1891 has been regarded as crucial in Oscar Wilde’s (1854-1900) career. Having been somewhat unsuccessful as a writer during the 1880s, and turning to journalism to earn a living, Wilde in this period saw the publication of his dialogues which led to his sole novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (hereafter, Dorian), serialised in 1890 before being republished as a novel in 1891. It has been characterized as a turning point in his career, and critics have studied these works in detail, as well as those which followed, especially the four society’s comedies: Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). However, besides this selection, much of Wilde’s work remains under-researched, particularly his fairy tales, whose study suffers from the prejudicial categorisation as children’s literature. Research to date has tended to privilege a single aspect of Wilde’sfairy tales, as in Jarlath Killeen’s The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde (2007) focusing on a Victorian societal perspective, rather than studying the fairy tales as a coherent and integral part of Wilde’s lifework. The essay focuses on ‘The Fisherman and His Soul’ (hereafter, ‘Fisherman’), recognised as the most sophisticated tale from Wilde’s A House of Pomegranates (1891) (hereafter, Pomegranates). It will establish the essential role of ‘Fisherman’ in understanding Wilde’s complex aesthetic philosophy by examining the tale from two distinct levels of intertextuality. First, Wilde borrowed some of the most emblematic aesthetical and narrative elements from Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ (hereafter, ‘Mermaid’) and other similar fairy tales from the early nineteenth century for explicitly positioning ‘Fisherman’ as a response to Andersen’stale. Taking the opposite approach to Andersen’s ‘Mermaid’, Wilde’s ‘Fisherman’ stands as a social critique against the Victorian doxa, especially denouncing its nefarious effect on art. Second, through epistolary and textual evidence, the essay reveals the connections between ‘Fisherman’, Dorian, and ‘The Soul of Man’ (1891), including their genesis, design, themes, and discourse. This dual intertextuality of ‘Fisherman’ allows us to reassess Wilde’s tale as an influential text. It contributes simultaneously to comprehending better how consistent Wilde’s aesthetic standards and societal view were.