The Archaic Art of Oscar Wilde: Three Lesser Known Figures of Rhetoric for Memorable
Prose with Blake Stone

For this workshop we will learn and practice three of Wilde’s favorite lyrical tricks: Chiasmus,
Antithesis, and Paradox, and how to use them effectively. Along with Latin and the classics, every
properly educated gentleman before the nineteenth century learned rhetoric and its figures. Irish and homosexual in late 19th century England and France, Oscar Wilde had to be a master wordsmith to flourish as a writer. He achieved it due in large part to his fluency of vivacious rhetorical figures. The flamboyant, if sometimes trite, little proverbs and turns of phrase had already begun to fade out of vogue when the literary modernist movement of the early-mid-twentieth century wrote them off entirely. In this hour-long workshop we take a close look at one of the hallmarks of clever queer wit and learn from the best.

Blake J. Stone (she/they/zhe) is a published author of poetry and short fiction. They identify as a
GNC (gender-non-conforming) lesbian and love incorporating alternative pronouns for characters in their fiction. With two degrees in philosophy, she has a proclivity for reading and studying pre-20th century fiction and poetry, often including ancient texts. By day, zhe is a Buddhist/Pagan hospital chaplain and a healthcare ethicist. They teach psycho-spiritual skills and poetry groups in an inpatient behavioral unit twice weekly; outside the hospital teach a monthly Queer Yoga class for RMEQ, and occasionally teach meditation. Blake has lived in Boulder for twenty-two years and is originally from the whiskey steeped hills and oak forests of the southern Highland Rim area of Appalachia in Tennessee.