La corporalité refoulée dans Le Portrait de Dorian Gray

Abstract

Corporality represents a key theme in Oscar Wilde’s famous novel, even though its relationship to the actual narrative is not devoid of ambiguity: in fact, for Dorian Gray, who wishes to mold his life in a way that resembles a work of art, the body is regarded as something undesirable because of its ephemeral character, subjected to the whims of time. This rejection is expressed through a pact which allows the young man to re legate the aging process and the accompanying physical decay to its painting, while conserving his youthfulness forever, but also, paradoxically, through the adoption of a hedonistic lifestyle, in which material pleasures are sublimated by the hero’s perspective and integrated into his new artistic identity. This article intends to study the place occupied by corporal reality in a literary world governed by the principles of aestheticism, whose major figure – namely the dandy – considers beauty to be a supreme value and displays an obvious lack of interest towards ethical issues. We will also demonstrate that there is a strong link between corporality and moral conscience, both of them repressed within a painted image, which ends up turning against its diabolically exquisite subject. La corporalité constitue un thème central du célèbre roman écrit par Oscar Wilde, même