A Study Of The Connection Between Body Narration And Aesthetic Hegemony In Wilde’s Works

As a representative of aestheticism in 19^th century,Oscar Wilde is one of the most widely discussed author in the whole history of English literature.Taking beautify as his only standard,Wilde strictly follows the slogan of“arts for art’s sake”.In his works,physical aesthetic activities are generally dominated by a hegemony:a value system that beautify is the superior while ugliness the inferior and a rationalization of behavior that seeks beauty and despises ugliness.This paper studies the relation between physical narration and aesthetic hegemony in Wilde’s works and attempts to elucidate the construction of aesthetic hegemony in a physical sense,how it works and the reaction of physical political awareness to this hegemony.There are three main chapers.The first chapter analyses the how the physical value system and an aesthetic hegemony form,and how the value system of seeking only beauty while despising all the ugliness helps to rationalize the aesthetic hegemony.The second chapter,centred on Wilde’s plays and fairy tales,analyses the influence of the aesthetic hegemony on physical level and then generalises its four operation modes which are the conspiracy of hegemony and politics and finally the power struggle between men and women.The third chapter concentrates on the concept of physical political awareness and elucidates how the body exert its own subjective initiative against the influence of the aesthetic hegemony.The body can use aesthetic hegemony,adopt hedonism and gain sensory experience;it can also rely on the power of religion when its own ability is insufficient;it can also resist the aesthetic hegemony through physical roaming,and find and confirm the ideal self.