|
IV. Aestheticism and Oscar Wilde
1. Introduction
In the late ninetieth century, social conflicts intensified
in European countries. The uneasiness prevailed in society also dominated
the intellectuals. Some talented writers and artists, who were against the
commercialization of art and also disgusted with the materialist theory and
critical Realism, set off a new literary trend, Aestheticism.
Aestheticism was derived from the
Decadent school. Its theory
of “art for art’s sake” was first put forward by the French poet
Theophile Gautier
(1811-1872).
In England, Aestheticism owed much to John Ruskin, who had
emphasized on “truth” in art. Although his insist upon moral values of art
was in contrast to Aestheticism’s ideas, his thoughts against
utilitarianism
gave great impetus to the development of Aestheticism. He, Coleridge and
Keats are called the forerunners of English Aestheticism.
Aestheticism first flourished in the field of art in the
1840s Britain, represented by the Pre-Raphaelites and
William Morris. In the
1880s and 90s, Aestheticism developed into its summit. The theorist of
Aestheticism was
Walter Pater. But its
strongest voice came from Oscar Wilde.
The main principles of the Aesthetic movement can be summed
up as following: Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life
should imitate art, not art imitating life. All artistic creation is
absolutely subjective as opposed to objective. Art should be free from any
influence of egoism. Only when art is for art’s sake, can it be immortal.
They believed that art should be totally unconcerned with controversial
issues, such as politics and morality, and it should be restricted to
contributing beauty in a lightly polished style. Thus, Aestheticism is
clearly a reaction against the materialism and commercialism of Victorian
industrial convention of art for morality’s sake, or art for money’s sake.
Though the movement itself was short-lived and aroused
numerous criticisms, its significance cannot be ignored. What makes the
1890s important as a period in English literary history is its strongly held
belief in the independence of art, in the point of view that a work of art
has its own unique value. This idea strongly influenced later generations.
Not only the Aesthetic movement nursed the young Yeats and provided him with
his life-long belief in poetry as poetry rather than as a means to some
moral or other end; it also provided modern criticism with its basic
assumptions. The whole modern criticism, as well as the new poetic
techniques associated with it, has been largely concerned with demonstrating
the uniqueness of the literary use of language, and with regarding works of
literature and art as possessing their special kind of form, their special
kind of value. In this it is the heir to the 1890s, however much it may have
modified or enriched the legacy. It was the poets of the 1890s, too, who
first absorbed the influence of the French Symbolist poets, an influence
that has proved pervasive in the twentieth century and is especially strong
in the poetry of Yeats and Eliot.
Therefore, it is justifiable to say that Aestheticism is a transitional
literary trend between Realism and Modernism.
|
