The Examination And Criticism Of The Western Literary Concept Of Non-moralism

Amoralism is a hidden thread in the western cultural tradition.It was once manifested through cynicism and skepticism in ancient Greece,when rational philosophy was not combined with Christianity,while became a sensory life of luxury,pleasure and indulgence in Ancient Rome.Amoralism was not revealed in the Middle Ages but preserved in Greco-Roman texts.With the rise of humanism,especially the thriving of secular humanism,moralism began to recover under the tide of the revival of Greco-Roman culture,and it has flourished in the European continent since the 19 th century.As a thorough reversal of rational philosophy and Christian morality,amoralism rediscovers and recognizes human beings.Emotions and desires were rediscovered and recognized under the tide of humanism,a process that contributed to the decline of God and thus to the groundlessness of morality.The shaking of morality and the liberation of desire create an opportunity for aesthetic autonomy,thus aesthetic begun to break away from moral control and expressed the wider world freely.Nietzsche,the first philosopher who called himself a "non-moralist",deeply revealed the origin,essence and function of morality in his works.Since then,a series of literary works that aimed at aesthetic autonomy and featured transcendence from reality,with amoralistic characteristics,have come out.From criticizing the shackles imposed by labor and ideology in capitalist society,these works reflect on the moral malpractice and crisis of modern society by breaking sexual taboos,advocating sensuality and exposing death instinct.These works criticize the traditional morality of suppressing human nature and life from aesthetic,philosophical and contemporary perspectives respectively,reflecting the prevalence of non-moral literary concepts,and responding positively to the requirements of the times and Nietzsche’s call.The thesis is mainly divided into three chapters.Chapter one traces the rise of humanism and analyzes the characteristics of its aesthetic secularization and its liberation of sensual desires;at the same time,examines the results of the separation of aesthetics and morality after God’s departure,especially the influence of the multi-dimensional human nature on the aesthetic field,and reveals the process of establishing aesthetic autonomy;in addition,from Nietzsche’s life philosophy to summarize the connotation of non-moralism,sorting out the emergence of amoral literature and its main changes,characteristics.Chapter two classifies the different non-moralistic literary in some works,and expounds the different reasons,paths and methods of these works against traditional morality through textual analysis.Firstly,it analyzes the aesthetic autonomy of the aestheticians who think “aesthetics is higher than ethics”,and the liberalism that transcend “mediocre evil”.Secondly,it discusses the works advocating primitive instinct and vitality inspired by life-ism,and the naturalistic literature exploring moral degradation under the influence of science.Finally,we examine the amoral works due to the sincere desire to write and the complex thought.Chapter three reflects on and summarizes the enlightenment of the literary concept of non-moralism,discusses the hidden social criticism and humanistic concern in these works.Meanwhile,we indicate skepticism,cynicism,a crisis of nothingness as well as a tendency to overindulge due to a lack of morality.