Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates how the novel The Picture of Dorian Grey has become part of the central Mexican ‘conquest’ landscape and mythology. The analysis engages with local intellectuals whose theories embrace its moral portraiture within their own prespectivist topography.

Paper long abstract:

Lacan observed in The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, that 'As subjects, we are literally called into the picture, and represented here as caught' and themes of ontological incompleteness and being 'trapped in art' are also explored in Oscar Wilde's famous novel The Picture of Dorian Grey. This paper examines how this novel has become understood to members of a Nahuatl community in rural central Mexico where the events of the Spanish conquest are found frozen in time and place in features of the surrounding landscape. It discusses the moral portraiture made by decadent intellectuals who recursively 'splice' core themes of The Picture of Dorian Grey with the mythology concerning the 'face' of the conquistador Hernan Cortez that is seen on a large rock outcropping. The analysis engages a local critical theory embracing the prespectivist topography of this hybrid landscape.