Life as an Imitation of Art
February 16, 2012 12:19pm
Oscar Wildes’ “The Decay of Lying” is a dialogue between two characters, Vivian and Cyril, concerning the rise of modernism in art. Vivian argues against the rise of modernism via ways that are similar to works of modern deconstruction, revealing Wilde to be a startlingly early precursor to the postmodern movement. Wilde, through Vivian, uses surprisingly modern methodology in his breakdown of the literary form and the author.

In “The Decay of Lying”, Oscar Wilde holds that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”. Wilde goes on to explain that such anti-mimesis “results not merely from Life’s imitative instinct, but from the fact that the self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realize that energy”. Thus for Oscar Wilde, life as can be seen through one’s binoculars imitates art more than art imitates what can be seen through one’s binoculars. Oscar Wilde’s antimimetic philosophy was to greatly influence later writers, such as Brian Friel.



