Edited by Merja Kytö and Erik Smitterberg
[Studies in Language Companion Series 214] 2020
► pp. 315–331
This article focuses on the news reporting on Oscar Wilde during the 1895 trials in which he was accused of sodomy and gross indecency. We discuss the positive and negative labelling associated with Wilde during and after the trials. Our data are drawn from the British Library Newspapers, consisting of over 1,500 articles from a variety of both rural and metropolitan British newspapers. Our results demonstrate that during the course of the trials, the reference to Wilde shows not only variation, but also change: his public persona changes from a well-known author to an accused criminal.