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Abstract:

Tom Stoppard is the greatest British playwright of the 20th century, continuing the tradition of intellectual play. According to most researchers of his work, he continues the tradition of paradox created by L. Carroll, B. Shaw and O. Wilde. Stoppard repeatedly refers to the figure of Wilde, whose paradoxical style influenced his own creative method. The article analyzes two plays “Travesty” (1974) and “The Invention of Love” (1997). In both plays, Stoppard adopts the characters of the Wilde heroes. Не refers to the plot of the famous comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest”, and in his own play “The Invention of Love” he brings Wilde himself to the stage. The article examines the question of Stoppard’s reception of the poetics of the paradox of Wilde, as well as the role of the latter in the formation of the “paradoxical” style of the British playwright. It is suggested that Stoppard develops the potential of Wilde’s most modernist play “The Importance of Being Earnest”, and also expands the possibilities of paradox as a way of constructing new meanings and presents Wilde as a paradoxical person who has formed a deep dialogical worldview.