Oscar wilde, a poet, novelist and playwright from the british victorian era, advocated and practised “americanism” with far-reaching implications for european literature and even for world literature. In the face of the turbulent and troubled times in which he finds himself, wilder has come up with a unique literary theory about “aestheticism”, which advocates both the preservation of artistic autonomy and the promotion of artistic assumptions, while emphasizing the pursuit of aesthetic life in unique forms of art。
Advocating “art for art”
At the end of the nineteenth century, when europe “lost universally accepted cultural standards and commonly accepted notions of human beings and the meaning of life”, the call for artistic purity and cultural purity gradually became a substrate in the development of modern western culture. In this historical and cultural context, wilder has developed the idea of preserving artistic autonomy, as well as the idea of “aestheticism” for “art”. With regard to the primacy of art, wilder gave a good explanation. He stated that “in these turbulent and troubled times, in these terrible times of strife and despair, there is only a beautiful and undisturbed house that can be forgotten and made happy”. Wilder's “aestheticism” literary theory of “art for art” has dual significance, and it both provides a profound insight into the essence of his theory and contains positive ideological elements for preserving artistic independence and purity。
Wilder's flag is a clear expression of worship for “american”. In his view, the sole purpose of art was to create “beautifulness” and to pursue “beautifulness” by abandoning even all moral standards. In britain's renaissance of arts, wilder argued: “what is dedicated to beauty and creates beauty is the characteristic of all great civilized nations.” in order to better interpret its “americanistic” literary theory, wilder even once saw “american” and “art” as synonymous. In his view, “art accomplishes all the conditions of beauty and so does it”. In his view, the sense of art is actually the feeling of beauty. He therefore sought to promote the idea of the supremacy of the arts, emphasizing that the term “art” could be replaced by the term “pretty” because it contained a personal beauty in the autonomy of “art”, which was the secret of its success. According to wilder, “american” is not an abstract synopsis, but an expression of personality. As he emphasized in “the decline of lies”, art, as an independent life, moves forward along its own path. In any given era, “art never expresses anything but its own”. The “personality” that wilder understands is not a simple symbol of representation, but a specific reference to the “manifest personality” character of the work of art. In the aesthetic framework of wilder, he understood this “personal identity” as “some kind of novelty and amazingness in a work”, and thought that it was the extraordinary charm of the work itself that attracted people to worship and love art. Wilder distinguishes the personality of a work from that of a human being, making it an important feature of the distinction between romanticism and aestheticism。
It is clear that, at a time when “the traditional ethics and socio-psychology of the long-balanced west have rapidly collapsed”, wilder has promoted “art” to the highest place, in fact seeking an aesthetic salvation。
Advocating art hypothesis
In the context of artistic supremacy, wilder analyses the relationship between art and life. In his view, imagination was above reality, and therefore life was not an art imitation, but an art imitation. In his long novel, the picture of doreen grey, wilder quotes, "life! Let the flowers of life be in you! He understood this “new feeling” as “artistic feeling”. In his view, improved aesthetic rehabilitation could help to lift people out of the injustice and mental suffering of social life. Art works should be abandoned if they do not bring pleasure or show beauty。
Wilder believes that the relationship between art and life encompasses the following aspects. First, perfect art can provide beautiful enjoyment. He sees life and nature as crude ingredients, believing that life and nature can only become beautiful works of art through the processing of “art” laboratories, otherwise they will be unbeatable. Therefore, in his view, life and nature are part of the material of art. Second, wilder believes that life is in fact a mirror, whereas art is a reality. Life and nature can only be perfected by imitating art. Therefore, life and nature must emulate art as an example. He believes that nature and life are both vulgar and poor, and that therefore art cannot imitate life and nature. Instead, life and nature are mimics of art. To support his point, wilde used the fog of london to explain the problem. He stated that “the fog is not seen now because of fog, but because poets and painters teach them the mysterious cutieness of this view”. That is, it's not because of the fog, it's because of the fog, it's because of the fog. Thus, in his view, art is creative, and life and nature are imitatives only, and the conclusion is that “literacy is always ahead of life, not imitating it, but embedding it for its own purposes”. Thirdly, wilder thinks that art “imaginations” are very different from “false” in life, that there is no universal truth in art, and that it has the qualities of imagination. He therefore sees this “imagination” of art as a reality “the decay of lies” and suggests that the “imaginative” character of art is to prove that “it is not the age of casting, but the age of artistic casting”. Therefore, art should prevail over life and beyond life。
It can be seen that wilder, in his artistic supposition, advocates that life originates from and reflects art, which in fact demonstrates his extreme disappointment with the social realities of the time, resulting in bitterness, obscurantism, pessimism, depravity and artistic feelings of self-defence。
Artistic forms of expression
In order to change the mindset of its bipolarity, wilder decided to find a balance between rebellion and esteem. He understood this balance as "the soul." in his view, the importance of “happiness” and “suffering” could be understood only in the rise of the soul, in particular by deepening the perception that “sorture” is “the highest emotion that human beings can reach”。
Wilder has defined the criteria for perfect spiritual advancement. In his view, whether it be to turn “low, cruel and depraved things” into noble ideas or “to make the best of the despicable and destructive intentions”, the soul needs to be perfected in the process of revealing its own form. As a result, wilder reduced this upgrading to a self-constructed product, considering both “happy” and “suffering” as essential elements in the process of spiritual advancement. After it became clear that the spirit could obtain nutrients from the transformation of both elements, wilde analysed the respective positions of “happiness” and “suffering” in the advancement of the soul. In his view, the way in which the body and the soul are combined is the only way to “the soul reaches the right level”. In particular, while “happy” and “suffering” combine to “make” the perfect soul, their effectiveness is different. “enjoy” is “for the good body”, and “pity” is “for the good soul”. As a result, “sorture” is used as “the ultimate type of life and art” rather than “happy”, which actually works even more in the process of grinding and raising the soul. On that basis, he believed that the ultimate function of a perfect “one spirit and one spirit” was to achieve a pure aesthetic life。
Wilder has almost devoted all his energy to using the word "sorture" to raise his soul. Wilder's redding prison song highlights the essence of his “americanistic” literary theory. In this poem, he simplifies his own painful experience in prison, leaps out of sorrow and reflects on the truth behind it. In his view, pain is only an important way to cleanse the soul, and if the pain comes out and looks at it with a sober mind, the truth of a perfect life is hidden behind “the mask of sadness”。
Thus, despite the formalist emphasis on the “beauties” of art, wilder's use of metaphors, symbols, symbols and other artistic techniques has drawn up in dynamic form the ethical judgement of the “americanist” literary theory. This practice not only accentuates the linguistic and artistic identity of their literary works, but also breaks the closed space of art and enriches the literary expression of wilder。
(by the marxist institute of nanjing teacher training university and the marxist institute of the university of south china)
