Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement: Art for Art's Sake, Sintesi del corso di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement: Art for Art's Sake e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! WILDE AND AESTHETICISM The Aestheticism focused on the belief of “Art for Art’s Sake” with Oscar Wilde as the main leader and theorist. The origins of the movement could be traced back to Keats in the Ode to a Grecian Urn, where he writes “Beauty is truth, Truth is Beauty.” However, the Revaluation of Aer and the philosophical consequences can especially be found in John Ruskin and Walter Pater. Ruskin has been described as the first real art critic, with his will to prevent architecture modification in the face of industrialism. He also thought of a utopian society anticipating Morris. He had a great influence on later Victorian thoughts on art, made a genuine of painters such as Giotto etc. Walter Pater, instead, was less polemicist and influenced the public through his lectures at Oxford university, like in the case of Oscar Wilde. As Ruskin, he studied the painting of the Renaissance and his works show how he was concerned with Christianity and aestheticism (respectively in the works: Studies in the History of the Renaissance, Marius the Epicurean and Essay on Style). In the 1880s and 1890s the aestheticism began to be associated with the kind of pale young man parodied in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Patience. Another important, but with little fame, movement was that of the Pre-Raphaelite. However, Wilde is certainly the most influential figure, being a dandy and for his professional career as a journalist. He’s best-known, however, for the theatrical comedies and the humiliating end to his career which came because he was arrested and force to hard labour for 2 years due to homosexual offences. The scandals of his life seem to be emblematic of the Victorian crisis. His most famous work is The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which he explores Victorian assumptions and values about topics such as art: it’s the story of a gorgeous young man. As he ages, he’s more and more corrupted, indulging on sensual pleasure etc. The portrait made by Basil, therefore, does not look the same, but it’s him who does not look the same: his soul is corrupted. The Preface could be considered the Manifesto of Aestheticism with the famous affirmation of Art for Art’s Sake. Oscar Wilde intended to criticise superficiality and lack of responsibility. Wilde reveals to be even a serious thinker, behind being a dandy, in such works as The Truth of Masks and The Soul of Man Under Socialism  he shows the hypocrisies of the age: moreover, he’s convinced that everybody should live the life most suitable for them and if a man does not think for himself, then that man does not think at all. Wilde’s name is also associated with Teleny, a homosexual novel, whose content where to explicit and for this reason it was limited. The circulation was again available after 1986, but most of the biographers tend to ignore it. Other may suggest that Wilde participate just marginally in writing it, but there’s no evident proof, nor original manuscripts. Teleny, however, remains an expression of a minority voice, a gay text, only properly heard a century later.