Poets, Politics & Philosophy · Volume One
Oscar Wilde, socialism and individual freedom
The Individual Against Authority examines Oscar Wilde’s The Soul of Man under Socialism, placing it at the centre of a sustained exploration of freedom, creativity and the individual’s relationship with power.
In the first volume of Poets, Politics & Philosophy, Wilde’s original work is brought into conversation with the present. The text is accompanied by editorial commentary, philosophical analysis and a modern response by Dr IP Loftus.
The original work
The Soul of Man under Socialism
Wilde’s essay provides the foundation of the volume: a provocative argument about authority, private property, art and the conditions in which individuality might flourish.
The new contribution
Commentary, analysis and response
The accompanying material follows Wilde’s argument closely, tests its philosophical assumptions and asks what his vision of freedom can still offer a modern reader.
The questions at the heart of the book
What happens to individuality when institutions demand conformity? Can material security create the conditions for a freer life? What is the place of art in a society organised around usefulness, ownership and work? Wilde’s essay refuses easy divisions between politics and aesthetics. This volume preserves that tension rather than resolving it too quickly.
The result is neither a conventional introduction nor a simple republication. It is an encounter between Wilde’s language and another historical moment—one in which questions of authority, inequality, work and creative freedom remain unsettled.
About the volume
This near-complete first volume forms part of Poets, Politics & Philosophy, a five-volume collection presenting major literary and political works with original commentary and analysis.