Glittering Wit: Three Works by Oscar Wilde
LIT-40099
Famous, and infamous, for his brilliant turn of phrase, seething social commentary and flamboyant personality, Oscar Wilde was the toast of the literary world throughout the 1880’s and 1890’s. Join us for an in-depth exploration of three of his most popular works. Laugh out loud at his farcical comedy, The Importance of Being Ernest, a play about superficial love, mistaken identities and cucumber sandwiches. Investigate such concepts as extravagance, beauty-as-commodity, morality, and the difference between art and culture in The Picture of Dorian Grey, Wilde’s late-Victorian Gothic novel. Explore themes of political corruption, public and private life, love and reputation in An Ideal Husband. Indeed, enjoy works so brilliant that Wilde himself famously quipped, “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
Course Information
Course sessions
Section ID:
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Textbooks:
All course materials are included unless otherwise stated.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 7/15/2025
Note:
Schedule:
| Date | Day | Start | End |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7/9/2025 | Wed | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 7/16/2025 | Wed | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 7/23/2025 | Wed | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 7/30/2025 | Wed | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 8/6/2025 | Wed | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| 8/13/2025 | Wed | 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
Instructor:
Renee Weissenburger, M.A.
Worked as an artist for CoTA (Collaborations, Teachers, Artists) and as a literature & creative writing instructor at National University.
Reneé Weissenburger teaches Women and Madness, Ernest Hemingway: Titan of American Literature, Gender Identity & Literature: Him, Her & Us, and Glittering Wit: Three Works by Oscar Wilde for UC San Diego Extension's Creative Writing Certificate Program. She also teaches Reading Photographs: The Art of Seeing, Beyond Image: Using Photo with Other Media, Variations on Photographic Portraiture, and Visual Poetry: Ways of Seeing for the Photography: Images and Techniques Certificate Program.
Reneé draws on her passion for literature, photography, and history to inform her work, both in the studio and classroom. As lead artist for CoTA (Collaboration of Teachers and Artists), and photography and literature instructor at UC San Diego Extension and National University, she invites students to investigate their own ideologies of memory, history, and the establishment of identity, using the mediums of writing, photography, assemblage and installation art. Her photographs and assemblages are largely concerned with the intersection of literary, historic and mythic motifs and their present-day echoes. She enjoys collaborating with writers and, over the last few years, has recently begun creating photographic trailers for book releases. Classes at UCSD Extension include Visual Poetry: Ways of Seeing, Women and Madness, Beyond the Image: Using Photography with Other Media, Gender Identity and Literature, Variations on Photographic Portraiture, Glittering Wit: Three Works by Oscar Wilde, Reading Photographs: The Art of Seeing, and Ernest Hemingway: Titan of American Literature.
