Модификация комедии нравов в драматургии Оскара Уайльда

Abstract

The essay deals with the problem of genre peculiarity of Oscar Wilde's comedies which represent the new stage in the development of the *comedy of manners”. This tradition descended from the Restoration comedy. In Wiide's dramaturgy it contends with some plot-building elements borrowed from French melodrama as well as with some aspects of space-and-time structure of the so-called *cup and saucer drama”, and finally prevails. The new quality of the genre modification in the works of O. Wilde is to a great extent determined by the paradoxy of the playwright's artistic thinking, his inclination for parodying and even self-parodying. A full triumph of the paradoxical spirit over the influence of the *well-made plays” is especially evident in the comedy The Importance of Being Earnest.