Au carrefour du réel et de l’irréel : de l’imagination chez Villiers de l’Isle Adam, Oscar Wilde et Gabriele D’Annunzio
At the Crossroads between Real and Unreal: On Imagination in the Works of Villiers de l’Isle Adam, Oscar Wilde and Gabriele D’Annunzio

Summary/Abstract: The social upheavals and the scientific discoveries that marked the second half of the 19th century, challenging traditional landmarks and values, caused a general and profound crisis among some intellectuals of the time, who no longer found their place in a fallen society haunted by utilitarianism. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, Oscar Wilde and Gabriele D’Annunzio testify, in their works, to the artist’s difficult and ambiguous relationship with reality. Fascinated by progress, but unable to abandon the charm of dream and curiosity for “the hidden side of things”, they elevated art into a new religion. Imagination, a complex notion to define, plays an important role in their aesthetic search because, by its nature, it stands at the crossroads of reality and unreality. Through theuse of imagination, the artists emerge from common people because they are able – by means of language – to combine images and perceptions from the senses with their highest ideals of beauty, which allows them to seek a dimension created by and for art where their genius can flourish.

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