Aesthetic Ideology. "portrait Of The Artist As A Young - Statics

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the first novel written by James Joyce. James Joyce, for the first time, states the stasis aesthetic theory in this novel, which made it one of the valuable materials for the study of Joyce's aesthetics. Based on the analysis of Joyce's early aesthetic ideas, especially of his ideas on the truth of art, the definition of the art, and the form of the art, the thesis draws a conclusion that Joyce's early aesthetic theory is a kind of stasis aesthetic theory that based on the pursuit of truth, and with the principle of respect for freedom. Linguistic theory, narratology and structuralism are employed to explore the stasis aesthetic theory and demonstrates how this theory is reflected in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Essentially, the stasis aesthetic theory is a concept on art form which advocates that a novel should discard moral preach in the content and should convey the aesthetic feelings through the text forms. In order to apply the theory and achieve the effect of the theory, in the process of literary creation, the author should not instruct readers about morals in the text directly; while using the means of modern narrative skills and avoid discourse intervention in the texts as much as possible so as to hide himself effectively and give the readers more freedom to interpret; meanwhile, the author should also fill the form with literary experience. In this way, readers can focus both on the form and content, so that they can fully enjoy a rich aesthetic experience through the form of the text. During this appreciation process,since the readers can keep a proper distance from the world described in the texts, they will not likely to be overwhelmed by the feelings like desire or sick, therefore they can stay stasis in their state of minds. Above all, the characteristics of the stasis aesthetic theory are the pursuits of the truth, distance, and freedom of the beauty; the appearance of the stasis aesthetic theory marked the initial establishment of Joyce's early aesthetic system.