Subjectivity and the “Shocking”: Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde and Ethical Limits of Pleasure

Abstract

The article analyzes the “shocking” and so-called “immoral” as a response to the institution-imposed methods of surveillance. This leads to initiation of discourses over behavior or actions which may not be unethical but which may be questionable in terms of social propriety. Moreover, the “shocking” may be seen as persistent attempts at formulation of subjectivity -the “performative self.” These ideas are analyzed with reference to Foucault's perspective on the issues and briefly in context of the late Victorian Aesthete culture spearheaded by Walter Pater and later, Oscar Wilde, the quintessential “dandy.” Their texts Marius the Epicurean and The Picture of Dorian Gray are read with the question of ethics and hedonism in mind, also relating the same to their fascination with classical Epicureanism. Keywords: Aesthetics; Ethics; Pater; Wilde; Shocking; Surveillance; Foucault; Epicureanism.