Re-examination Of "Literature Is Aesthetic Ideology"

Ideology is a very important concept in current social science studies, among which the relationship between aesthetics, arts and ideology is one of the most controversial topics. The study on ideology is not new in our country; however, for a long period of time, the mainstream discourse has been limited to the discussion and confirmation of the aesthetic ideology of literature itself. This approach is unable to analyze the features of specific texts, illustrate the historical and aesthetic differences of literary works, or explain how literature is used to manipulate, construct or work on ideology. More importantly, the concept "Aesthetic Ideology" itself has certain drawbacks in its connotation and denotation, unable to effectively solve the problems emerging from the course of research. This thesis, based on this consideration, attempts to interpret and discuss the relevant theoretical issues regarding aesthetic ideology, and also on the basis of close reading of relevant canons in literature and ideology and with reference to the conceptual development of "aesthetic ideology", suggests a discussion on issues centered on this important concept. Then it sorts out, analyzes and summarizes these issues following the macro-micro-summary approach, presenting an overall description of the theory of aesthetic ideology. This study not only is conducive to our theoretical understanding and mastery of ideology and the historical nature of various aesthetic phenomena, but also helpful in our mastery of aesthetic power in practice.This thesis is comprised of five chapters, of which the second, third and fourth are the main parts.The first chapter, Introduction, explains the value, meaning and inner logic of the thesis. It examines from a macro perspective the development, changes and controversies of aesthetic ideology theory and points out three problems: narrowed vision, disconnected perspectives and the missing awareness of problems. A re-examination of aesthetic ideology is of extraordinary value and use in our research on western literary theories and on the development of our own scientific Marxist Literary theory as well.The second chapter reviews the academia's differences on the understanding and perspective of the concept of aesthetic ideology, and proposes the sorting and comparison are the basis and premise of this study. It summarizes the formation, development and major forms of the literary ideology theory and literary aesthetic ideology theory, with emphasis on the tie between Chinese literature and ideology. A survey of foreign and Chinese literary ideology theories leads to the conclusion that the existence of Marxist literary theory is the result of the constant development of literary theory by Marxist theorist in post-Marx era. The relationship between literature and ideology is one of the basic propositions in the 20th century Marxist literary theory.The third chapter, after a brief introduction of the background and basic views of this theory, presents a detailed theoretical analysis of the relevant concepts of aesthetic ideology and the following proposition: Only under the capitalist context did Karl Marx and Frederick Engels recognize the critical function of ideology and aesthetic ideology is a Marxist notion in its critical sense; Aesthetic ideology not only is the result of the discard, inheritance and synthesis of ideological and aesthetical views on the nature of literature in the first half of 20th century China, but also has its theoretical origin deep in the relevant writings of classical Marxist writers, thus fairly legitimate and progressive; Aesthetic ideology, following the essentialist thinking mode and knowledge production mode at the conceptual level and transcendentally defining the "universal law" and "fixed essence" of literature, has become the knowledge formation of the doctrine of critical theories; The major representations of the understanding of aesthetic ideological issues are the establishment of New Ideological Critics and the re-construction of Aesthetical Ideological Critics.The fourth chapter, after a summary of the relationship between literary ideology and the nature of literature, puts forth, from the previous discussions on the influence of Mao Zedong's Thoughts on Chinese literature, the feedback of contemporary literature to ideology and the relationship between literature and ideology, etc., the more extensible statement that "Literature is a linguistic form that stimulates human aesthetics and is a form for expressing subject's desire."The final chapter, conclusion, serves as a re-summary of the whole thesis, outlining the author's discourse of exposition.