Artistic (mis)representation and commodity culture in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The House of Mirth

Artistic (Mis)representation and Commodity Culture in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The House of Mirth attempts to establish a trans-Atlantic connection between authors Oscar Wilde and Edith Wharton by considering the manner in which each author\u27s respective protagonist relates to art, commodities, and the society in which he or she lives. By reading Dorian Gray and Lily Bart through the lens of Jean Baudrillard\u27s Simulacra and Simulation (1981), the companion chapters show the extent to which each character\u27s reality is complicated by his or her illusory relationship with both fine arts and social artistry. The first of these chapters, Portrait-Induced Madness: Artistic Representation and Simulation in The Picture of Dorian Gray considers Dorian\u27s uncanny relationship with the portrait that bears the sins of his soul as a representation of double-simulation wherein Dorian\u27s unchanging appearance and the portrait\u27s grotesque transformations are the consequence of artist Basil Hallward\u27s departure from ethical artistic creation. The second chapter, Object d\u27art for Sale: Lily Bart\u27s Self-Commodification and Simulation in The House of Mirth, traces Lily\u27s social maneuverings through fashionable New York society in order to show how her supposedly artistic attempts to attract a suitor result in her treatment as a social commodity instead. The tragic fates of each author\u27s protagonist ultimately suggests that even though they are active participants in the consumer culture of their time, Wilde and Wharton experience and express severe anxieties concerning how anyone can remain unique or artful in a society that dictates an individual\u27s material desires