The Portrait of Dorian Gray - An interdisciplinary project
The famous novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray serves as a basis for an interdisciplinary project, which aims at emphazing various aspects of the main character. Dorian Gray is analised from different perspectives, from psychological, literary and philosophical points of view. The goal of this project is to elaborate a paper that may serve as an informative source for those who are interested in this subject, and it may also serve as a model for similar activities.
The most important and attractive part of the project is represented by a cooperation between the group of pupils who has been working at this project and "Odeon Theatre" Bucharest that is staging an acting-dancing performance based on Oscar Wilde's novel. The cooperation consists in attending a rehearsal of the show The Portrait of Dorian Gray. The discussions that follow the rehearsal, the dialogue between the pupils and the actors of Odeon Theatre are meant to throw a stronger light upon the aspects of the character tackled in the paper.
The core of the paper is the psychological portrait of Dorian Gray, but it is not a simple psychological point of view. It is constantly elaborated in its relation with the philosophical patterns of the novel, with its literary framework and, last but not least, with the mythological side that could be depicted in The Portrait of Dorian Gray. The cooperation with Odeon Theatre comes as solution to a better understanding of the novel, as an applied form of getting close to a literary text. As the show will be a mainly choreographic one, the embodiment of the character will be understood better and the vision of the pupils on Oscar Wilde's work will happily meet the theatrical and choreographic vision.
This project is meant to suggest that any other literary masterpiece can be easily understood and can truly reveal its spirit when it is studied in relation with various forms of art (like dancing or acting) and a dialogue between a theoretical perspective and an artistic one is a good way to develop the ability to analize and feel a literary work..
Gina Serbanescu, philosophy teacher
