A Study On The Acceptance Of Foucault’s Aesthetics Of Existence In China

Foucault,who was born in France in 1926,left a deep impression in the academic circles of France and the west with his unique insights and views.Foucault died in 1984,and the second and third volumes of The History of Sexuality,published in the same year,attracted extensive attention from western scholars,who regarded it as Foucault’s main representative work in his later exploration of ethical subjects or aesthetics of existence.In 1978,the implementation of reform and opening-up measures brought a new face to China,the whole ideological circle was rejuvenated,and a large number of western academic thoughts poured into China.Foucault,who was regarded as one of the representative figures of structuralism,also entered the research scope.Power,knowledge and Aesthetics of Existence became the three major themes of people’s research on Foucault’s thoughts.In recent years,with the continuous deepening and expansion of research,the status of aesthetics of existence has become increasingly prominent and has become the core of understanding Foucault’s entire thoughts.However,the importance of aesthetics of existence in China is not formed in a single period,but experienced three different stages of exploration,development and perfection.Under the acceptance context of different periods,each stage presents different acceptance conditions and research characteristics.Therefore,this paper attempts to sort out the literature related to the research on aesthetics of existence by domestic scholars,understand the acceptance of this thought in China.So as to provide some research clues and directions for scholars to study aesthetics of existence more comprehensively and deeply in the future.This article is divided into four parts to discuss the research status and future research prospects of aesthetics of existence in China.In the first part,this article mainly discusses the general situation of the acceptance of this thought in the 1990 s in China,which is the exploring stage of scholars to the thought of aesthetics of existence.During this period,Foucault,a member of structuralism,was introduced into China,people paid more attention to Foucault’s theory of Power and Knowledge,The thought of aesthetics of existence only received the attention of a few scholars in colleges and universities,and in this period,the research on aesthetics of existence tends to give a brief explanation and introduction to the connotation of this thought from the perspective of ethics,but has not yet formed a complete research system.The second part is the development period of the research on aesthetics of existence.Following the exploration in the 1990 s,in the first five years of the 21 st century,the study of aesthetics of existence in China has made new progress.The in-depth discussion of the connotation and definition of the nature of aesthetics of existence has become the prominent feature of this stage.During this period,the publication in China of the Chinese versions of Mike Featherstone’s Consumer Culture and Postmodernism and Wolfgang Welsch’s Undoing Aesthetics has aroused great interest in the research on the theme of "aestheticization of everyday life",the thought of aesthetics of existence,which emphasizes self-creation and pursues the artistry of life,has naturally entered the research field of scholars along with this upsurge of research.In a short period of five years,In a short period of five years,the number of books and journal articles on aesthetics of existence in China has greatly increased,and articles specializing in aesthetics of existence began to appear,the thought of aesthetics of existence was systematically discussed during this period.The third part is the perfection period of the research on the aesthetics of existence,from 2005 to now.In this stage,compared with the previous two periods,the research on the aesthetics of existence has reached a new height in China.Both in terms of research perspective and discussion depth,as well as the number of scholars and articles,this period has been improved.Power,knowledge and aesthetics of existence are no longer the three main branches of Foucault’s thought,but they are integrated.You have me and I have you,which runs through Foucault’s thought.In addition,the study of aesthetics of existence is no longer limited to the thought itself,and comparative analysis with other thoughts has become a hot research method of scholars in this period.The study of aesthetics of existence shows a diversified trend.The last part is the prospect of the research on the aesthetics of existence in China.This part aims at analyzing and sorting out the previous three parts to obtain the research situation of the thought of aesthetics of existence in China at present,and then points out the deficiencies in the research,so as to provide some useful reference for later researchers to choose the research direction of Foucault’s aesthetics of existence.