Writers and artists of the aestheticism movement believe that the mission of art is to provide sensory pleasure for human beings, not to convey some moral or emotional information. Therefore, aesthetes refused to accept the utilitarian view that "art is a practical thing bearing morality" put forward by john ruskin and matthew arnold. On the contrary, aestheticians believe that art should not have any didactic factors, but should pursue pure aesthetic feeling. They are obsessed with the pursuit of "beauty" in art, think that "beauty" is the essence of art, and advocate that life should imitate art.
Basic introduction Chinese name: aestheticism mbth: aesthetic classification: art-literature representatives: Keats, Shelley, Gautier, Wilde's soul figures: Wilde's major events: Wilde's prison formation, development, movement, formation, literary characteristics, influence, China, introduction, dissemination, making foreign things serve China, representative works, aestheticians, dramas, ultra-aestheticians, etc. As a representative work of Japanese aestheticism, the aestheticism movement is a loosely organized movement in the field of British art and literature in the late19th century. It is generally believed that aestheticism is in the same strain as the symbolism or decadence movement in France at that time, and it is a branch of the international literary movement in Britain. This movement is part of the anti-Victorian trend and has the characteristics of post-romanticism. It happened in the late Victorian era and lasted from 1868 to 190 1 year. Generally speaking, the academic circles believe that the end of the aestheticism movement is marked by the arrest of Oscar Wilde. British decadent writers are deeply influenced by Walter Horatio Pater. Pater published a series of articles from 1867 to 1868, advocating that people should embrace life enthusiastically and pursue the artistry of life. The decadent school accepted this view (in 1930s of 19, Ophir Gautier, a French poet and novelist, first threw out the slogan of "Art for Art's sake" and claimed that there was no connection between art and morality). Writers and artists of the aestheticism movement believe that the mission of art is to provide sensory pleasure for human beings, not to convey some moral or emotional information. Therefore, aesthetes refused to accept the utilitarian view that "art is a practical thing bearing morality" put forward by john ruskin and matthew arnold. On the contrary, aestheticians believe that art should not have any didactic factors, but should pursue pure aesthetic feeling. They are obsessed with the pursuit of "beauty" in art, think that "beauty" is the essence of art, and advocate that life should imitate art, and the formation of aestheticism has a long process. Keats was an English romantic poet and a pioneer of aestheticism in 1930s. He said, "Good things are eternal happiness." Gautier, a French writer, is a writer who transited from romanticism to aestheticism. He opposed the utilitarianism of art, advocated pure art and pursued formal beauty, and put forward the idea of "art for art's sake". Gautier became an advocate of aestheticism. Wilde's Works: The Ghost of Cantwell There are two major factors in the formation of the British aestheticism movement at the end of the 19th century: one is Bede's hedonism criticism (1839-1894); Second, Morris's artistic life thought (1834- 1896). Bede believes that the responsibility of literary critics is not to master knowledge and list materials to meet the correct definition of beauty, but to have a special temperament and the ability to feel the object of beauty, to closely connect themselves with the contents of books, and to discover * * * and fun from them, which is the basis of aesthetic criticism. Morris believes that the purpose of transforming society is to stretch freely and make daily life artistic. If no civilized society can provide such an environment for its members, then there is no need for this world to exist. The above viewpoints of Bede and Morris laid the theoretical foundation of aestheticism. Coupled with the efforts of Rossetti (1828- 1882) and Swinburne (1837- 1909), the aestheticism movement was finally formed. The real representative of aestheticism is Oscar Wilde (1856- 1900), a practitioner of aestheticism creation and an advocate of aestheticism theory. As far as the relationship between art and reality is concerned, Wilde thinks that art should be detached from reality and life. "Real events are the enemies of art. All the disadvantages of art come from real feelings. Nature is understanding, and understanding is not art. "All poor art comes from the description of returning to nature and the objective description of life. Therefore, it is considered that any art of "returning to life and nature" is not good, and the farther away from reality, the better. The only good thing is something that has nothing to do with us. "For the role of art in life, Wilde believes that life is imitated by life, not by art, art is not a mirror of human social life, life is only a student of art, and art is supreme. Some people think that this fundamentally denies the historical materialism that social existence determines social consciousness. Others believe that Wilde did not completely deny that social existence determines social consciousness, but that social consciousness is relatively independent. Social consciousness may change and develop before social existence. As an advanced social consciousness, art has a dynamic reaction to social existence and a positive role in promoting social development. Starting from the purpose of literary and artistic creation, he preached "art for art's sake". People believe that "art only shows itself." "Art has an independent life, just as thought has an independent life." The novel dorian gray is one of Wilde's representative works, and it is also an aesthetical work aimed at explaining that "life is an imitation of art, and if art is destroyed, human life will cease to exist". The main characteristics of the aestheticism movement with literary characteristics include: pursuing hints rather than statements, pursuing sensory enjoyment, using a lot of symbolism, and pursuing the relationship between things-that is, exploring the internal relationship between vocabulary, color and music. It is generally believed that aestheticism comes down in one continuous line with the symbolism or decadence movement that took place in France at that time, and it is a branch of the international literary movement in Britain. This movement is part of the anti-Victorian trend and has the characteristics of post-romanticism. Aestheticism is sometimes associated with demonism, but it is not necessarily consistent with demonism and decadent art, but perceptual and carried out together with the Renaissance. Sometimes it is combined with mysticism. The representative figure who influenced aestheticism: Oscar Wilde's aestheticism had a great influence on China's literary world. In 1930s, Xu Zhimo, a scholar of "Crescent School", once flowed into China, and his poems were obviously aesthetical, which was severely denounced by Lu Xun, a China writer. Aestheticism was pioneered by romantic poets john keats and Shelley, and also influenced by pre-Raphael school. In Britain, the most outstanding representatives of aestheticism are Oscar Wilde and algernon Charles Swinburne, both of whom are influenced by French symbolism. Artists related to the aestheticism movement include James McNeil Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Aestheticism also had an impact on interior design. Aesthetic interior designers like to decorate with peacock feathers and blue and white porcelain. The aestheticism movement was ridiculed by the magazine Clumsy and Gilbert and Sullivan's opera Patience. China's Brief Introduction China's modern literary criticism is developed under the influence of western literary thoughts. Aestheticism not only injected fresh vitality and theory into China's modern literary criticism, but also promoted the diversification of China's modern literary expression, aesthetic form and aesthetic style. The modern transformation of China's literary concept and criticism began in the early 20th century. With the continuous emergence of western literary works and literary theories translated and introduced by Lin Shu and others, China's ideological and literary circles have been shocked as never before, and China's literary world, which is eager for China's literary reform, has taken on a new look. People try to get rid of the inherent traditional fetters and seek the same discourse system in the world. The upsurge of translating and introducing western literary works and aesthetic works has promoted the all-round opening of China's literary world to western literature and literary theory. There are not only romanticism and realism, but also aestheticism, symbolism, immature expressionism and futurism. Since 1990s, Chinese scholars have begun to pay attention to the influence of aestheticism on the May 4th New Literature, but there is a lack of in-depth and systematic research on the influence of aestheticism on Chinese modern literary criticism. This paper intends to discuss the influence of aestheticism on China's modern literary criticism from three aspects: extensive translation, direct introduction and reasonable absorption. The spread of China's modern literary criticism developed under the influence of aestheticism and other western literary trends. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the continuous influx of western literary schools into China, bourgeois thinkers represented by Liang Qichao took advantage of the impact of western literary concepts on China's traditional literature and launched a literary reform movement. Although their idea of "taking middle school as the body and western learning as the application" did not fundamentally shake the foundation of China's feudal old literature, their advanced literary ideas, such as "I write my own words, my mouth", "I worship vernacular Chinese and abandon classical Chinese" and "borrowing doctrine" advocated by Lu Xun, emphasized the practicality of literature and accelerated the all-round opening of China's literary world to western literature and literary theory. China's translation and introduction of western aestheticism began with Oscar Wilde, the representative figure of British aestheticism. Zhou Zuoren translated Wilde's fairy tale The Happy Prince, and Chen Duxiu introduced Wilde's play Salome in the preface of Su's novel The Scarf Story. As the basic position of the May 4th new culture, New Youth and Trendy magazine frequently published Wilde's works and life introductions. There is a "Wilde fever" in China's modern literary world. Almost all of Wilde's plays, poems, novels and theoretical articles have been translated and introduced to China. The translation and introduction of literary theory that can truly embody aestheticism aesthetic thought began with Zhu's first translation of Wilde's The Decline of Lies, while Lin Yutang translated and published another literary theory of Wilde's Critics in five times. Since then, Shen Zemin's critical biography of Wilde (novel monthly 12, No.8, 192 1 year), Zhang Wentian and Jiang Fuquan's Wilde (National Daily supplement "Awakening", 1922), and Liang Shiqiu's. In addition, Walter Horatio Pater, a theorist and critic who played a vital role in the systematization of British aestheticism theory, is also the focus of modern literary circles in China. Pater's literary theory was first published in the semi-monthly book Shen Zhong in the late 1920s and early 1930s by the translated Preface to Renaissance Studies (1June 922), Guo Moruo's Criticizing Wattfit (1June 923) and Zhang's translated work on Pater's aestheticism. Peter Peder's Philosophical Thought and English Literature at the End of the Century (North China Daily Supplement,1930165438+1October 24th and 25th). From Zhou Zuoren's translation of Wilde's fairy tale "The Happy Prince" to the late May 4th New Culture Movement, in more than 20 years, western aestheticism theory and its works have come out one after another, and its translation and criticism have surpassed any western literary school except realism. Limited by space, we can't list the historical facts of the translation and dissemination of western aestheticism in China one by one, but the extensive translation and dissemination of aestheticism in China laid the foundation for the understanding and understanding of aestheticism in China's modern literary world, promoted the "making foreign things serve China" of aestheticism, and made it possible for us to critically absorb aestheticism. From the literary point of view, the aestheticism view of literature and art originated from Kant's aesthetics is a contradictory synthesis, which not only advocates that "aesthetics does not involve interests", but also believes that "attached beauty cannot but involve purpose, cognition and morality, so it involves utilitarianism"; It not only emphasizes that "art is absolutely indifferent to reality", but also thinks that "the more abstract and idealized art is, the more it can reveal the characteristics of the times to us". The two aspects of the contradiction of aestheticism in literature and art were "directly used" by Liang Qichao and Wang Guowei respectively. The failure of the Reform Movement of 1898 showed the importance of people's ideological transformation. It is Liang Qichao's basic proposition to use literature to promote ideological enlightenment and make up lessons for the Reform Movement. After his exile in Japan, he was not only exposed to Japanese aestheticism, but also inspired by Japanese political novels. Since then, Liang Qichao has published articles such as On the Relationship between Fiction and Group Governance, Xinmin Shuo, and Preface to the Translation and Printing of Political Fiction, which gradually formed a utilitarian literary view and attached importance to the social education, politicization and popularization of literature. In a sense, Liang Qichao's literary proposition is related to Kant's view that the beauty of dependence has to involve purpose, cognition and morality, so it involves utility. Wang Guowei's literary view was also formed under the influence of western literary thoughts such as aestheticism, and his theory came directly from Kant and Schopenhauer, emphasizing the independence and aesthetic function of literature. Wang Guowei believes: "A trustworthy person is not lovely, and a lovely person cannot be trusted." "The essence of beauty is, in a word,' a person who is cute to play with but useless.' "There is no doubt that this is the China vernacular version of Kant's" aesthetic disinterest ". "Great metaphysics, strict ethics and pure aesthetics are what we like." Wang Guowei's shouting for "pure aesthetics" shows that he has an unconscious agreement with the western aestheticism thought derived from Kant's aesthetics on the basis of philosophy. This makes it possible for Wang Guowei to become an advocate of aestheticism in China's modern literary criticism. His masterpieces such as A Dream of Red Mansions Review and Qu Zi's Literary Spirit laid the foundation for the formation of China's modern literary criticism. Judging from the practice of literary criticism, aestheticism rejects the degeneration of art, defends the purity of art and maintains the independence of art. The May 4th Movement is an era of fierce collision between Chinese and Western cultures. The advocacy of vernacular Chinese and the publicity of the concept of "human literature" have made China's literary concepts and criticisms gain unprecedented modernity. Advocates of new literature criticized the concept of "writing carries Tao" and all kinds of game literature, maintaining the independence of literature to a certain extent, but their overall interest focused on people's ideas, which continued the concept of literary enlightenment since the late Qing Dynasty. A strong sense of hardship and the traditional practical rational spirit of China's scholar-officials "taking the world as their own duty" are projected on the literary concept, which has always influenced the development of modern literary concept and criticism. Representative works 1, Miss Junichiro Tanizaki 2 of Wanbang by Gautia, The Happy Prince and dorian gray by Wilde. Plays: Mrs. Windermere's Fan, an insignificant woman, an ideal husband and a childless play 3, Junichiro Tanizaki's spring piano imitation aesthetician itself is not necessarily perfect; But they are a group with perfect pain and happiness. They have sensitive nerves and compare themselves with other things from time to time. When taking perfection as a reference, they feel inferior and envy all better life forms; When they take others as reference, they sometimes feel relieved and happy, and feel that the world is lacking. Aesthetists are all naive children. They love fantasy, decorate their rooms, watch famous books and classic movies, and they have a sense of humor, but they prefer to enjoy the sadness in tragedy. Aesthetics wants to smoke but doesn't want teeth to turn yellow. They dye their hair, but they don't want to damage it. They will degenerate, be crazy and be negative, but they are all people who know how to save themselves. This kind of non-dangerous error does not violate the perfection of the definition. Therefore, in fact, everyone's beauty has its own definition. In life, aesthetes love cleanliness. When they look at the house, they will look at the toilet first, because they hate the stench and filth. However, they are not obsessed with neatness and can tolerate clutter and cobwebs, because there are also many beautiful forms here. Aestheticism means that there are always beautiful ideas about one thing, but the process of realization is also a process of gradual disappointment, so they often give up halfway. They also advocate virtue and always feel inferior because these rare virtues do not appear on themselves. In love, aesthetes can be romantic or platonic. In any case, their rich imagination will shape each other into absolute objects at the first contact. When reality shatters their illusions one by one, they want to flee irresponsibly. But aesthetes really fall in love and torture themselves with the past and the future. They like to listen to vows, but they can't be too conventional. They advocate self-sacrifice. After crying her eyes out, they said, I decided to leave for your happiness. In short, aesthetes rehearse love in their hearts when they are young, and the love they conceive is the perfection they define. The slightest deviation will make them shake and run away. Drama aestheticism is a refutation of the times fashion of "material supremacy" and "mercenary". It takes Kant's aesthetics as a weapon and forms a spiritual confrontation with the mediocre and ugly reality. First, the embryonic stage of 18 19. From the 1980s to the 40s, the main representatives were poet, painter Blake and poet Keats. Second, the formation stage1The emergence of the "pre-Raphaelites" in the mid-9th century marked the formal appearance of aestheticism. "Pre-Raphael School" advocates returning to the simple and simple painting style before Raphael in the Renaissance. Representative figures are poet, painter Rossetti, artist Peng Jones and utopian socialist Morris. Third, the peak stage is represented by Wilde and Pate. Pater's study of Renaissance history is called the declaration of aestheticism. Pate pointed out that the purpose of art is to cultivate people's sense of beauty and pursue the enjoyment of beauty, and the meaning of life is to enrich the feelings of beauty as much as possible. Wilde made aestheticism reach its peak from theory to practice. His representative works of aestheticism are the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the one-act play Salome. Ultra-aestheticism (also known as pure aesthetics): man is the most imperfect existence in creation. There is no absolute bottom line, morality and chastity, but the temptation is not enough. Except those who have faith (religious belief and secular belief. Secular belief is a reflection on philosophy, literature and art or the ultimate natural science) and the feelings that life can entrust; And all civilizations will eventually become the remains of nature, and the thinking of an era is only temporary. The aesthetics of each era is different, and there is no fixed standard-for this reason, the only thing that has existed for the longest time in human activities is "eternal aesthetics", which is pure aesthetics. Pure aesthetics means: stripping the existence of the above reasons as much as possible. The main characteristics of literary works are: pure beauty (visual aesthetics, picture sense; Pure mind; Impression shaping of classic aesthetic themes; Wait). Because in habitual thinking, people often think that it is "nothing definite" (there is not enough personnel description) and the writing is aestheticism, so it is called super aestheticism. Super-aestheticism is a collection of essays, and the representative article of Super-aestheticism is the essay "Falling Red in the Array", which is condensed into these four words: Falling Red in the Array. Ultra-aestheticism pursues the ultimate beauty, which is its fundamental feature. Ultra-aestheticism is the aesthetic form closest to the human mind, which pursues the clarity of the soul. Aestheticism, aestheticism and visual art aestheticism also have an impact on interior design. Aesthetic interior designers like to decorate with peacock feathers and blue and white porcelain. In Britain, it happened in the late Victorian era and lasted from 1868 to 190 1. In the study of design history, the design trend with similar tendency in the United States is often attributed to the aestheticism movement. It should be pointed out that although the aestheticism movement and the arts and crafts movement sometimes seem to be tit for tat, they developed in parallel, and * * * was in an eclectic atmosphere in the Victorian era. Designers are often in contact with each other and sometimes use the same design language. The core idea of aestheticism movement holds that the mission of art is to provide sensory pleasure for human beings, not to convey some moral or emotional information. Therefore, aesthetes refuse to accept john ruskin's view that art and morality are linked. They believe that art or other decoration should not have any preaching factors, advocate "art for art's sake", pursue the pure beauty beyond life, and pursue the perfection of form and artistic skills. They live a bohemian life, and even if they are poor, they love beauty more than life. In short, it is "aestheticism in pursuit".