Unveiling Aestheticism: Reflections on the Dissemination of Western Aestheticism in China

Jiang Chengyong, Ma Xiang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (3) : 48.

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Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (3) : 48.
Issue in Focus: The Centenary of the May Fourth Movement Literature

Unveiling Aestheticism: Reflections on the Dissemination of Western Aestheticism in China

  • Jiang Chengyong, Ma Xiang
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Abstract

For over a hundred years, nineteenth-century Aestheticism's dissemination in China has been insufficiently examined, which leaves the intension and extension of Aestheticism still unclarified even to date. The key to defining Aestheticism is the concept's inherent link to aesthetics, that is, the self-awareness of sensibility, which explains why numerous forms of perceptual knowledge can be intuitively grasped from the works of Western Aestheticism. However, under the influence of natural sciences as well as the industrial and commercial civilization, the target of perceptual knowledge shifted from natural to artificial objects. Through manifesting the diverse forms of perceptual knowledge, Aestheticism conveys the artists' personalized "sentiment." Therefore, it can be said that nineteenth-century Aestheticism derives from certain artists' self-conscious attempts, during the transformation of modernization, to explore and express the possibilities of perceptual knowledge out of their paradoxical mentality of being shocked by and curious about the industrial and urban civilizations. Specifically, nineteenth-century Aestheticism can be understood on four levels: Aesthetic poetics, Aesthetic schools of art, Aesthetic works of art, and the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Key words

Aestheticism / trend of thought in literature and art / perceptual knowledge / decadence / aesthetics

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Jiang Chengyong, Ma Xiang. Unveiling Aestheticism: Reflections on the Dissemination of Western Aestheticism in China[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2019, 39(3): 48

Funding

the Major Project of National Social Sciences Fund (15ZDB086), and the Major Project of the Humanity and Social Sciences Foundation of Zhejiang Province (16YSXKIIZD).
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