On Extreme Experience In The Predicament Of Modernity

This dissertation expound the extreme experience trend of thought in culture and art from the 1850s to the 1950s in the West ,concerning its background of sociology of culture , theoretical genealogy, praxis types and its modern aesthetic qualities .The main points of the paper as follows: The first part ,which is entitle "Sociology of Culture and Philosophy Proposition of Extreme Experience",explored mainly the trend's root of sociology of culture and theoretical genealogy. we considered the extreme experience trend of thought in culture and art emerged in the condition that bourgeois everyday life became "Iron Cage" gradually , accompanying on the coming into being of Mass Society and Social Sphere .Facing the loss of meaning and freedom resulted in the predicament of modernity, the philosophies and artists, who earnestly practise what they advocated the extreme experience , must break through the handicap of "Iron Cage" so that they can achieve the freedom and salvation .Thus, its main character is to negate , resist ,subvert the bourgeois everyday life and its ideology ,which materialized the theoretical proposition of Philosophers,such as Nietzsche, Simmel ,Weber, Freud and Foucault. The extreme experience which they advocated ,on the one hand, reflected the varies profile of irrational principal part, on the other hand revealed the new character in the modernity condition. The trend intended to resolve the predicament of modernity by means of politicalizing aesthetics. The second part, which is titled "Extreme Experience in the Modernism", examined the modernity qualities of the trend's praxis types .The art of extreme experience,depending on the intuition, pursued the autonomy principle which displayed the triumph of the volition in the irrational world. Besides, the art of extreme experience , which substituted the tradition religion, offered the varies utopia so that achieved the freedom and salvation. With the title of "The Aesthetics of Extreme Experience",reviewed the aesthetic style of the the extreme experience trend of thought in culture and art. Owing to pursue the autonomy principle, modernism art showed themselves "negative beauty" and abandoned the imitative beauty, thus, shock and horror became the dominant aesthetic style of the art of extreme experience. Besides, the art of the extreme experience represented the inner irrational world of the life by disharmony form, which resulted in aesthetic quality of ugliness. In succession, we distinguished the representative "negative beauty" from the traditional aesthetic form,such as religious extreme experience, tragedy, bash and peak-experience and so on depending on the duality . Finally, we evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of the the extreme experience trend of thought in culture and art by means of politicalizing aesthetics as a whole.