| Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is the central figure of Aestheticism in the late 19th century England and the most controversial writer in the history of English literature. He stands out among his fraternity of Victorians in fin-de-siecle London with the "bizarre" outspokenness, the dandyism, and the paradoxical and witty comments both in his life and his literary practices. Despite Wilde's versatility in a wide range of literary forms, his literary theories and works have long been overshadowed by his eventful life and were misunderstood and even neglected for many years. Fortunately, history has begun to give this often oversimplified writer rightful attention and judgment and modern scholars and critics have strived in different ways to disclose the depth and profoundness of both the man and his works. However, Wilde's unique philosophical Aestheticism and profound paradox of his life and works still leave us no small room to explore.By tracking down his academic background and the philosophical heritage in his thoughts, this thesis discloses that in spite of his seemingly unconventional personality and theory, Wilde owed great debts to philosophy traditions. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, this thesis is in attempt to prove that Wilde made skillful use of philosophical ideas as raw material and theoretical sources for his own novel Aestheticism; he absorbed the treasure of both western and eastern philosophy on his way of clarifying his own ideas upon art, life, beauty, morality and society, which finally led to the production of his unique conception and interpretation of Aestheticism; in the meantime, he went further to put his new idea into literary practice. This paper presents a fresh point of view to see the interaction of literature and philosophy in the making of Wilde's unique Aesthetic thinking in hope of dissolving the mystery of this controversial writer under the wider cultural backgrounds and place his Aesthetic thinking into a wider intellectual context...
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