Research On Aesthetic Thoughts Of Walter Benjamin From The Perspective Of Subjectivity

Subjectivity, one of focuses in philosophy and aesthetics, has experienced two phrases-the establishment of its principle and anti-subjectivity current since modern times. Many experts abroad have showed great interest in anti-subjectivity current in latest years. This is partly due to their having not possessed a full-scale knowledge of subjectivity. Therefore, to redefine subjectivity from different perspectives in academic frontier abroad could be a new hot area of research.Benjamin’s thought seems to be complicated, for he confirmed on truth and in the meanwhile he tended to anti-rationalism, which can indicate his ideas of anti-subjectivity to some extent. But he was energetically searching for the role of subjectivity in materialized times as well. In process of redefining subjectivity, he hoped to find the significance of subject’s existence with help of aesthetics and that would provide human being with a new hope for redemption. In fact, redefining subjectivity could be one of the potential themes of Benjamin’s thought. Therefore, it is of great contemporary value to study the theme and is also of great help to face the challenges of modality.The aesthetes and thinkers in Benjamin’s works are different from the aesthetic subjects in the age of Enlightenment, and also different from the dead subjects without any pursuit and meaning in the descriptions of postmodernism. Benjamin’s subject is complicated and ambiguous. Benjamin would criticize modality by means of rational reflection on the living state of his complicated and ambiguous subject.Rational criticism is one of the most important dimensions to criticize modality. Benjamin got the inspiration from the creation of literature and art, and based on that, he created a kind of an intellectual thinking mode to fight against rationality in Enlightenment and also to pursue the combination of sensibility, rationality and divinity. It is the ultimate question of all the issues concerning subjectivity to pursue the true, the good and the beautiful, which also represent the ultimate value of subjectivity. Benjamin is not only in pursuit of truth but also in pursuit of beauty in the process of studying subjectivity, which is a way to redemption in his opinion.Benjamin did not only focus on philosophical mind,but based his thought on artistic instinct and life experience and then combined social criticism, philosophical thought and aesthetic reflection into a united whole. He had a deep perception on the gap between the tradition and the modernism in the period of social transformation. And his thought seems attractive to Chinese intellectuals who are just experiencing the same transformation. Therefore, it is of enlightening significance to take Benjamin’s aesthetic thought into Chinese academic context, to find the Chinese academic circle’s acceptability to Benjamin’s aesthetic thought, then to find some Chinese problems refracted by Benjamin’s thought and based on the problems to find the best way to culture integration.