The aesthetic conception in the artistic and literary work of Althea Gyles (1868–1949)

Abstract

This article theorises althea Gyles’s artistic and literary production as a coherentsymbolic system shaped by fin-de-siècle symbolism, aestheticism, and esotericdiscourse. through an interdisciplinary analysis of her illustrations, poetry, and bookdesigns—read alongside her relationships with W. B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde—the studyargues that Gyles articulates a hybrid aesthetic in which text and image operate as asingle semiotic field. By situating her work within the Celtic revival and occultmodernity, the article challenges her marginalisation and repositions Gyles as astructurally significant figure in late nineteenth-century culture. the study contributesto a reassessment of fin-de-siècle culture as a relational and generative aesthetic fieldrather than a narrative of decline by foregrounding collaboration, material book culture,and symbolic intermediality.