Wilde and Barkhtin on the Opendedness of Art and Life

Resumen

If in "The Decay of Lying" Oscar Wilde crearly denounces the assumtions upon which realism depends (art as imitation, moral values, etc.) in "The Critic as Artist" he proves to be a precursor of Bakhtin. Affirmations such as "whihout the critical faculty there is no creation", "all interpretations (are) true and no interpretation final", "criticism is always moving on and the critic is always developing", although applied mainly to criticism, point to Bakhtin's central ideas on the novel: its openendness, its developing character and its parodic nature. For Oscar Wilde criticism fulfils the same role as the novel does for Bakhtin: it reveals the limits, the boundaries of any lyterary system as artificial and authoritarian.