A Study On Ingarden's Phenomenological Aesthetics From The Perspective Of Organic Unity

Phenomenology as established by the German scholar,Edmund Husserl,is one the most important inspiration of the Western thoughts in the 20 th century.As Husserl's eminent student,Ingarden,assisted by Husserl's theory of intentionality and phenomenological reduction,builds up his own phenomenological aesthetics spanning literary ontology,literary epistemology and aesthetic value.The creation of this aesthetic system has made Ingarden an outstanding figure in the history of western aesthetics.So far,there has been much investigation on Ingarden's phenomenological aesthetics.However,people have not paid as much attention and reflection to the concept of organic unity permeated in his esthetics as it deserves.In this research,the author is going to examine Ingarden's aesthetics from this point of view.This thesis is composed of four partss:The first part explains why the author investigates Ingarden's aesthetics of phenomenology from the perspective of organic unity.There are two motives driving Ingarden write out his The Literary Work of Art and The Cognition of the Literary Work of Art.Firstly,he is discontent with the way people interpret dichotomously literary works from the ‘form' and the ‘content'.He holds that in this way readers could not grasp the essence of literary works.Secondly,he intends to express his ideas different from his teacher---He disagrees to Husserl's transcendental idealism.Starting from Husserlian phenomenology and applying the methods of ‘bracketing' and ‘eidetic reduction',Ingarden defines a literary work as a purely intentional object with multi-layered formation.In the proceeding of his analysis,the ancient concept that ‘a literary work is to be seen as a whole' is interpreted and proved all over again.The second part discusses organic unity reflected in Ingarden's exposition of literary ontology.Ingarden sees the literary work in two different dimensions.They are multi-layered formation and para-time structure.Mult-layered formation is the synchronic dimension,which contains four strata.They are(a)the layer of sounds of words;(b)the layer of meanings;(c)the layer of represented objects;and(d)the layer of schematized views,which altogether form the skeleton of literary organic body as a whole.The third part delineates the concept of organic unity reflected in Ingarden's literary Epistemology.The represented objects in literary works have so-called ‘spots unestablished',which extends the significance of the entire literary context.In the process of reading,the reader concretizes the ‘spots unestablished,which amounts to adding flesh to the skeleton and vitalizing the literary work.The process of concretization is actually continuous,that is to say,the concretization proceeds over time.When Ingarden is dealing with the concretization in his works,the concept of organic unity is constantly referred.The fourth part,the author mainly discusses the relationship between aesthetic value and organic unity.Aesthetic value stands as one of the problems bewildering Ingarden in his late years.He considers aesthetic value an important issue because it connects literary works and the audience.The aesthetic value contained in literary works is discovered by the audience in the processing of concretization.It is the aesthetic value that makes a literary work as an organic whole with unspeakable charm.Ingarden's aesthetics of phenomenology has exerted a great influence upon western aesthetic thinking in the 20 th century.By investigating the relationship between his phenomenological aesthetics and the concept of organic unity,we are able to establish Ingarden on his right position in the history of Western arts and literature.He himself is a milestone in Western aesthetics from ancient to modern times.In his way of thinking,he emphasizes the process rather than the outcome.His attitude towards organic unity has exerted great influences on New Criticism,Receptional Aesthetics and Reader-Response Criticism and has generated different renosances.