The language of decadent childhood in Oscar Wilde’s tales

The language of decadent childhood in Oscar Wilde’s talesI should like to take a close look at the way the realm of childhood as a referential context of situation is depicted and the way the identity of Wildean children is constructed and disclosed in tales in which children are involved and play a major role—“The Happy Prince”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Young King” and “The Star-Child”. In order to analyse the language of these tales, and what Zipes refers to as their “subtlety and art”, I shall concentrate upon the articulation of expression and representation in the formulation of what can be considered an archetypal stage in any folk or literary tale—the child’s transformation, or metamorphosis