On The Poetics Of The Western Aestheticism

This dissertation is a systematic study of the poetics of the western Aestheticism in the context of modernity. As a school of literary thought, Aestheticism is not great in terms of extent, but it is of great significance in the role it plays in the history of western literature. Aestheticism advocates self-containment of literature, holding high the value of creativity, alternation, and differentiation. Aestheticism is of highly modernity by exploring for methods to rescue the world and secular life. Its advantages and disadvantages in literary artistic practice, critical practice as well as in social practice reflect, to certain extent, a typical status quo of modern western cultural construction. Therefore, the study of Aestheticism will help to understand the mechanics and operating system of western culture, and this has made Aestheticism a hot spot for academic study all the time. Especially since 1980s, when cultural study was making its way into the study of Aestheticism, new prospects have been studied, revealing unknown aspects continuously. Yet, beyond the prosperity of study on Aestheticism, there remain some problems. First, the studies focus on the literary artistic practice and social practice, neglecting the aspects of critical practice and poetic construction. Secondly, the studies often focus on typical case rather than on individual case, lacking the studies on the context that generating the literary school, nor is there adequate study on the general mastery of Aestheticism. Thus, the studies are often of peripheral, unable to reveal the dynamic force generating literary theories. The perspectives of the studies are also limited, unable to find out the real significance of Aestheticism and its poetic information,and therefore unable to posit the real role Aestheticism plays on literary history and how the literary school is related to other literary theories in the west. As a whole, the study of Aestheticism is not satisfactory, and changes must be done about it. In my opinion, to further the study on western Aestheticism, we should study the poetics of Aestheticism as a whole, and deliberate on the cultural context ofmodernity-----the context that generated Aestheticism. That is what I am going todo in this dissertation.Cultural context of modernity is the total cultural concept of value, thinking mode, cognitive mode, and living mode mat have formed in the historical process of modernity. The cultural context of modernity, as a total concept, is similar to Kuhn's science paradigm, or to Foucault's ' knowledge paradigm', so it can be viewed as a science paradigm or 'knowledge paradigm' that generates culture. It does not only affect the norms generating and operating modern western poetics, but also affect the problems critics having to face in the criticism of westerii poetics. It is based on such understanding and logic that I make, in this dissertation, detailed analysis and study of the western cultural context of modernity, and make general exploration on the problems that may arise in such cultural-generating paradigm (or, the dimension and space of western poetics of modernity drawn out by the cultural context) . Against this platform or ' mimic' referent system of poetics, I will make a thorough study of the western Aestheticism, trying to recess the subtle connotation of the literary school, to make clear the relation between Aestheticism and other literary theories, so as to make a comprehensive assessment of the historical role Aesthetics plays on western literature.This dissertation is divided into three parts. In the first part, I'll make a study of poetic context generated Aestheticism and the poetic problems manifested in such context. I'll start by making a study of the poetics along with the initiation and development of the various groups of Aestheticisni, making classification and definition of various groups and their representative works, so as to make certain the objects of this study, building up a platform for further studies. In the second part.I'll try to analyze and discuss the poetic problems of Aesthetics in contrast to modernity: self-containment of literature, establishment of subjectivity in individuals, the eroding of transcendency, and the rescue of secular life. I aim in this part at a general understanding of the subtle connotation of Aestheticism. In the third part, 1*11 make a study of Aestheticism in relation to other poetic literary schools: Pre-Romanticism, Romanticism, Positivism, Naturalism and the various modern literary schools, with the purpose of mastering the general characteristics of Aestheticism, and decide the proper role of Aesthetics in literary history. In the end, I am going to demonstrate the problems that have so far been neglected or unsolved in the study of Aestheticism, providing some instruments for the current study of Aestheticism.The creativity of this dissertation is showed in the following three points:Firstly, by the analysis of the cultural context of western modernity, and by the study of the poetic problems manifested in the analysis, I build a kind of instrument similar to the "mimic object "by Roland Barthes, and make further study on western Aestheticism against such instrument. In this way, I provide some instrument as operating tools for the study of Aestheticism, thus avoiding the shortcoming of current mode of studies.Secondly, I make efforts not only to study the 'what' but also the 'why' about Aestheticism, so as to reveal the generating mechanics and the operating norms of modern poetics, for this will provide for academic study a dynamic operating mechanics of culture generation. The understanding of such operating mechanics will help to construct new literary critical theory, or literary theory of modernity, so that we can avoid such academic studies as only the collection of materials, the providing of out-of-date viewpoints and character analysis, and the peripheral study of literary history.Thirdly, initiating with analysis of cultural context of western modernity as a logical starting point, I make up a mimic system of reference from the poetic problem manifested in the process of the analysis. In this way I make a study of thetheoretic viewpoints and the value of expectation of Aestheticfsm, and trace the development of the literary school to make comprehensive study of the role of Aestheticism in literary history. In so doing, I try to reveal the logic of the generatmg mechanics and operating norms of Aestheticism as well as literary development as a whole. At the same time, this also reveal the problems that have so far been neglected or not yet solved in the study of Aestheticism, or even in the study of foreign literature as a whole, such as the problem of self-containment of literature and the problem in the institution of literature creation, that in self-containment and dependency of meaning generation in literature, and the problem arisen in the conflict between the free-will of individuality and the pursuit of science, so as to give some guidance to literary criticism.