A “Complex, Multiform Creature” No More: Governmentality Getting Wilde

This paper investigates the trials of Oscar Wilde from two converging perspectives: their individualizing effects on Wilde, and their effectiveness in defining, for the population as a whole, the vital role of governmentality in the conduct of everyday life. Strategically, the trials helped to marshal the forces of the state, the law, the media, and “public opinion” in order to secure varied yet integrated social goals—common decency, class stability, national integrity—realized by the vigilant exclusion of a now-visible minority. At the same time, the penal discipline inflicted on Wilde (two years of hard labor; the maximum sentence), rather than “curing” or reforming him, converted him into a martyr for the newly-defined cause of homosexuality.