Oscar Wilde's Aestheticism And Its Intrinsic Contradiction

The aestheticism is a trend of literary thoughts which appeared in the late nineteenth century in the West. In this time, there are a lot of literary thoughts in the European literary arena. The aestheticism created a great stir for its high character, its anti-routine opinion, and its personal independence of conduct. The esthete advocated the belief of "Art for art's sake", They believed that the Art had independent life , and the mission of Art is to bring the best moment of life to people. They also said that Art transcended life, and is unsurpassable. For this reason, the esthete negated actual theme, opposed the prevailing idea that Art take its color from life. They all lusted for the beautiful paradise without any odiousness.Oscar Wilde is a representative figure of the esthete. The aestheticism embodied in his literary critics, in his literary creation, and even in his daily life. His works were reffered to as scriptures of aestheticism, and they reflected his pursuit for pure beauty. In the other hand, there are some kinds of contradictions in both his artistic work and his critics. He advocated aestheticism, at the same time, in some of his works, we can find the contrary opinion which reflects the bafflement of the author himself.By reading and analyzing wilde' s some important works, this thesis deeply explored the intrinsic contradiction in them. The thesis mainly contained three parts. The first part studied wilde' s literary thoughts of aestheticism. The second part disserted on wilde's literary creation of aestheticism. The third part had a discussion on the intrinsic contradiction of his works, and studied the reasons behind the phenomenon, such as the social context and the experience of the author. Through the deep discussion on the intrinsic contradiction of wilde's aestheticism, both his literary works and the position and influences of aestheticism can be easily comprehended.