The Two Kinds Of Metaphorical Identities In Liquid Modernity

Zygmunt Bauman is a contemporary well-known British sociologist, whose research on modernity, post-modernity and liquid modernity is quite original and unique. In china it has acquired outstanding achievement on the translation and the introduction of his theories and works. Compared with other post-modern theorists such as Lyotard and Jameson, the study on Bauman is obviously inadequate, and is usually confined to the field of sociology. Because the research object, the perspective and the writing style are unique, Bauman's social thoughts present rich aesthetic meanings. In the 1990s, with the continually extending scope of Aesthetics, sociologists' social thoughts and cultural ideas gradually come into the eyeshot of Aesthetics. At this point, the study on Bauman's social thoughts and its aesthetic meanings echoes the changes in Aesthetics. At the same time it is also the response to the current research boom in cultural studies and sociology.By the restricted view on two metaphorical identities in Bauman's thoughts of liquid modernity, we start with our study on Bauman's social ideas and its aesthetic meanings. The first metaphorical identity is tourist, which discussed three issues. The first one is the comparison between modern pilgrims and post-modern tourists. The second one is that the entia of tourists and consumers, a universal metaphor in the era of cultural consumption, presents Aestheticization ( Aesthetization) pan-esthetic. And the last one is the reflection on the subjectivity and individuality of tourists/consumers in Aestheticization. On one hand Bauman emphasized tourists can flow freely and choose discretionarily. On the other hand he could not but admit that tourists in the consumer society have been controlled. Therefore he had paradoxical feeling about tourists. However, we clearly consider that tourists' subjectivity and individuality in the current are incomplete, and their choices is not fully free as Bauman sometimes described. The second metaphorical identity is the waste. We study this issue from the following four aspects, classification of the waste, abandoned strategy and its results, aesthetics on the waste and its criticism, and people how to get along with each other after interpersonal ties have broken off. The waste exists in any era, particularly in post-modern era when the new features show that the waste is abandoned not because of uselessness. It is only the surplus and functional existence. Furthermore, it is impossible to create a perfect order by continuously abandoning, for the confusion and the order represented by the waste are symbiotic and co-comitant. On the other hand, the waste contains two aspects, innovation and frightfulness. People are keen to create the waste because they are obsessed with the instantaneity experiences of abandoning, but this flow cycle is gossamer and sinking because it gives up the pursuit of the eternal. When people are accustomed to the discretionarily disconnected interpersonal, and only willing to be aside or to be with strangers, Bauman advocates being-for, or put it in another way, the responsibility for others, which stands for the moral remonstration and expectations against the individual after a deep reflection on post-modern.Because of Jewish identity and early rough life experiences, Bauman pays sustained attention to other. Two issues we studies in this paper are not selected at random. One reason is the two metaphor identities include plenty of aesthetic factors, the other is his sustained attention to other. Tourists contrast to rangers, a kind of waste, is an aesthetic and free subject. But quite ironically they are wo sides of a coin, and in the current consumer society, the difference between the two forced acts is only weather it is obvious or not. So we research tourists from the perspective of subjectivity and individuality, whereas we emphasize the waste as the existence of other in the study of the waste.Bauman is accustomed to studying the condition of each kind of post-modern crowd. The research contains various planes such as society, morals, culture and so on. It not only appears the moral humanities concern but also has the rich aesthetic flavor. The study on Bauman's thoughts and its aesthetic meanings begins with the two metaphors but also not only limits these. We are trying to unfold Bauman's thoughts comprehensively by contrasting with other metaphorical identities, so our research could appear more thorough and widespread.