The significance of Oscar Wilde’s nationality to his life and work is a relatively recent area of modern critical inquiry. In fact, up until the 1990s Wilde’s claim to Irish identity was contested by some critics. In 1954, the writer, Flann O’Brien, strenuously opposed the notion of Wilde’s Irishness, proclaiming that he was undoubtedly an English writer and Irish only by accident of birth.
... [Show full abstract] Maurice Harmon’s and Roger McHugh’s ambiguous attitude to Wilde’s Irish nationality has been noted by various writers in the field of Irish Studies.1 Writing in their Short History of Anglo-Irish Literature, these critics acknowledged Wilde’s Irish origins but consigned him to the history of English theatre.2