Strike a pose: Sarony’s Wilde in America

• In Event: "Absolutely Modern": The Uses of Oscar Wilde in Latin American Literature and Culture (II)

Abstract

Shortly after his arrival in New York for his 1882 lecture tour, Oscar Wilde visited the photographic studio of Napoleon Sarony in Union Square, then the most famous portrait photographer in America. Then again in 1883 when he revisited the city. These images have become the most recognizable images of Wilde and offer a visual counter-part to José Martí’s literary portrayal of that same year. One of these photographs was appropriated and marketed in trade cards by a lithographic company then becoming subject of a (first) copyright infringement suit that Sarony pursued to the Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor.
What’ in a pose? Whose body? Whose image? This paper explores the visual construction of Wilde as author-figure, literary celebrity and queer body, the production and dissemination of these images as well as the legal precedent they established, reflecting on the intersection between photography, literature, authorship and gender difference.

Author

• Alejandra Uslenghi, Northwestern University