Exiled to the colonies: 'Oscar Wilde' in Australia 1895-1897

When Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in 1895, his plays were withdrawn from the London stage and, as Joel Kaplan and Seila Stowell note, exiled to the provinces and played with their author's name discreetly removed. Here, Fotheringham examines the impact of Wilde's trials and imprisonment throughout 1895-1897 on public reception to Brough-Boucicault Comedy Company's performances of his plays in Australia.

Western Images of Islam, 1700-1900

This paper traces fluctuating attitudes to Islam and its Prophet, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth. Western perceptions, as revealed by writers of the period, encyclopaedias, biographies and commentaries, were sometimes sympathetic, sometimes dismissive; sometimes celebrating Islam's piousness; sometimes accusing it of fraud. Sometimes Islam is seen as benign; sometimes its violence is seen as endemic. Often the cultural biases of western observers are obvious: the west is progressive and historically dominant, the east (and its cultural accoutrements) is degenerate and over-zealous. But we ought not judge religions or cultures by their worst manifestations alone. Oriental societies were never just Islamic or traditional. They comprise not only those who perpetuate oppressive practices towards women but also modernizers who seek change.