صورة دوريان جراي لأوسكار وايلد في ضوء النموذج المعرفي لعبد الوهاب المسيري للكمون و التجاوز

Abdelwahab Elmesseri (1938-2008) is an Egyptian critic who has developed what he calls an epistemological paradigm of Immanence and Transcendence. Based on the anti-foundationalist modern theories is the idea of Immanence where the divine is manifested in the human and both of them are again manifested in nature/matter resulting in a pantheistic existence where dichotomies such as divine vs. human or human vs. matter are obliterated. According to these theories, there is no independent human space, only a denial of the human's ability to transcend his material nature. On the other hand, Elmessiri's utmost point of referentiality is Ontological hermeneutics that incorporates macro narratives in view of a grand theory of human existence. The Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is best remembered by his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. This novel is to be studied in the light of the above mentioned epistemological paradigm of  Elmessiri. The protagonist Dorian Gray epitomizes Elmessiri's notion of Immanence where "Pleasure is the only thing worth having a theory about" and where "Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval" (Wilde, 64). In presenting the final mutilation of the picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde shares Elmessiri's ideology of transcendence, and the inability of natural sciences to encompass the phenomenon of human nature.