The Dimension Of Literary Aesthetics

The concept of "Literary Aesthetics" was brought out in China in the early 1980s, which was a natural production of the liberation movement of thought. At that time, Chinese people gained a better understanding of the essence and features of literature by means of their discussions about thinking in images and the relationship between literature and politics. They were aware of the fact that literature was related to the "irrational" area, and had different function and social influence from other cultural forms.Literary Aesthetics triggered off by the research in the alleged "perceptual science" has found its development a tortuous process in the past twenty years. Under the influence of the practical aesthetics which took reason as its major concern, Literary Aesthetics initially failed to fully understand the special value of perception. It was not until the social life became diversified and new literary phenomena emerged constantly that people firmly believed the significant value of literary activities lay in the perceptual dimension. All these happened during 1980s and 1990s. If the orthodox ideas of literature before 1980s paid attention to the meaning of reason and society, then the new ideas of literature afterwards attached importance to the value of perception and individual. Literature-a song of secular life-has always been a means of imaginative communication. It presents us the various possibilities of "how to live in this world" and finally answers such perplexing questions as "how our life is" and "how to live a meaningful life." Similarly, the ultimate concern of Literary Aesthetics is the meaning of our perceptual life.Literary Aesthetics adopts German classic aesthetics as its theoretic base. German classic aesthetics, with Baumgarten and Kant as its founders, is a modern science which advocates the value and importance of perception. The questions about the perception of life and the value and meaning of individual life are the right matters considered within the dimension of "perceptual science." German classic aestheticshas exerted great influence both on the development of western modem aesthetics and on some Chinese scholars like Wang Guowei and Luxun, whose thinking about literature formed the original tradition of Chinese Literary Aesthetics. Therefore, the birth of the concept "Literary Aesthetics" in the early 1980s was an inevitable outcome of thinking.Literary Aesthetics opens a dialogue between reason and passion. Began with "perceptual science", it aims at propelling forward reason, society, and history by means of literary activities, which are perceptual, individual, and psychological. The purpose of doing research on the subject of Literary Aesthetics is not merely for the necessity of theory. Moreover, it corresponds with the historical practice of literary activities. "Poetry is the mother tongue of human being." Literary activities help human beings with their transformation from ape to man. From old myths, Chinese "Book of Songs" to ancient Greek epics, primitive literary works provided "public space" for perceptual communication of individuals and thereupon advocate the formation and development of "collective reason." It is thus evident that the major intention of primitive literary activities is to convey meaning to all the perception of life.On the other hand, the concerns of the perception of secular life give essential impetus to the development of literature. Following the step of civilization, with rationalism as its main idea, the hegemonic cultural forms began to depreciate the importance of the perception of secular life, which shook the foundations of literary activities. Nevertheless, the interior impulse of perception required some energy to counteract rationalism. Literature is the form of culture that contains this energy to convey meaning to the perception of life. From the angle of "perceptual science" and the interrelationship between literature and other cultural forms, we can explain those "unbalanced" phenomena. It is clearly demonstrat...