Victorian Philosophy: Contextualizing Wilde THE DIALECTIC JOURNEY TO “ART FOR ART’S SAKE.”

Decadence moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury. luxurious self- indulgence.

Decadent movement: Transition between Romanticism and Modernism Negative title given by critics to artists and writers who disregarded detail, didactic purposes, and trite moralistic “progress.” Many writers of the late 19 th century were proud of this title They followed aesthetic philosophy

Art for Art’s Sake

Aestheticism: Dialectic response to: Realism Didacticism Morality Pre-Raphaelites Walter Pater – The Critic Rooted in Hedonism

Aestheticism: “Art for Art’s Sake.” Art that serves no other purpose than to be beautiful. Art for the pleasure and sensations that it could producewithout any regard to standards of morality or utility. Art for the pleasure and sensations that it could produce, without any regard to standards of morality or utility. Art, be it visual or literary, is created to serve as amusement, as apposed to having some sort of function.

Aestheticism: “Art for Art’s Sake.” While Aesthetics were appreciated, it was because they helped deliver a simple message. Art before this movement almost always had a didactic or symbolic motive.

Aestheticism: 4 Main Concepts

cult of beauty: The cult of beauty: Believe, believe! “In comparison to Art, Nature is crude, raw, and unrefined.”

choice for a life beyond common morality The choice for a life beyond common morality.

solution of the dichotomy between senses and spirit through the theory of the spiritualization of the senses The solution of the dichotomy between senses and spirit through the theory of the spiritualization of the senses. ?

reversal of the principle of art imitating life into that of life imitating art. The reversal of the principle of art imitating life into that of life imitating art. “Life should imitate Art.”

The Artist is an Alien in a Materialistic World. The artist is a superior being because he can view the truth about the world. But because the artist can see the truth, the artist is an alien and a social outcast.

Aestheticism’s dialectic response to Realism Realism started in mid to late 1800s in France Attempted to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. Focused on “objective reality” Realism was the dialectic response to Goth and American romanticism Just as surely as Gothic and American romanticism was a dialectic response to the Industrial Revolution

Realism – Millet’s The Gleaners

Dialectic response to Didacticism emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and the arts Didactic art should both instruct and entertain. The instruction is in the social norms, traditions, morals, and ethics of a given society Gained negative connotation – art ruined by facts, instruction, moral grandstanding.

Didacticism

Dialectic response to Victorian Morality Sexual restraint – at least publicly Low tolerance for crime Strict social conduct No tolerance for homosexuality

Victorian Morality as a dialectic response to society under the reign of George the IV. George IV – the playboy Society’s morality = a pendulum

Victorian Morality fractures as power shifts in the Christian Church. Churches controlled education systems and heavily influenced government. The high class remained church- educated. Churches remained the authority in rural towns and village. Churches lost favor and power in the cities, where urbanization continued to flourish and less people were exposed to the Church’s education system.

Victorian Morality shifts when confronted with Darwin. Darwinian philosophy places established Christian perspective in peril Theology shifts to focus on individual relationship with God rather than a relationship mediated by church authorities. Therefore Morality too shifts toward the individual’s duty to God, fellow man, social class, etc.

So those Aesthetics… Valued the individual – and therefore didn’t think art could be objective, nor should it try to be (anti- Realism) Were sick of the nagging and hypocritical grandstanding (anti-Didacticism and anti-Victorian morality)

…Meanwhile… Pre-Raphaelites Speak Up A group of English painters, poets, and critics founded in 1848 Rejected more rules composed by usual art schools, such as the Royal Academy of Arts. These rules taught certain guidelines of art. Early doctrines to have genuine ideas to express to study nature attentively, so as to know how to express the genuine ideas to sympathize with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parodying and learned by rote to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues

Influence of Walter Pater on Aestheticism Pater was a writer and a critic Associated with the Pre-Raphaelites Studied Classic Greek philosophy (Epicurus, Plato) Greek and Roman mythology, and Classical literature and arts Talked about art in terms of “virtue” rather than “value”

Walter Pater The Critic In the past, people looked at the cause and then studied the effect – for example, looking at the context and then examining the text for the influence of context. Pater examined the effect to work out the cause – for example, examining the text and attempting to draw out the contextual influence.

Walter Pater’s Critical Method Pater’s method of criticism is often mistaken Sometimes people believe it is based purely on intuition However it closely examines the root of individual expression He argues that subjective, personal knowledge is the true step toward understanding In TOK terms, he believed in FIRST using all the WOKs to fully comprehend what life, ideas, and art means to the individual. Only AFTER one truly comprehends one’s personal reaction can one begin to examine the “powers and forces” that created the piece.

Ways of Knowing (WOKs) – How do we know what we know? What tools do we use every day to interpret and function in the world? Language Sense Perception Emotion Reason Intuition Imagination Faith Memory

Influence of Walter Pater Wilde is greatly influenced by Pater In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the character Wotton repeatedly misquotes Pater. Other authors influenced by Pater: Marcel Proust ( In Search of Time Lost ) James Joyce ( Ulysses, Dubliners ) W.B. Yeats ( The Tower ) Ezra Pound ( Ripostes ) T.S. Eliot ( The Wasteland, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats )

Anti-Realism/Anti-Didactic/ Anti-Victorian Morality meets Pre-Raphaelites and Hedonism = Aesthetic Decadence Movement Hedonism = pleasure is the chief good to be pursued by man Hedonism = pleasure is the chief good to be pursued by man, i.e. the end of all human actions.

Parallels with Wilde?

Parallels with Kafka? And how in the world did Existentialism continue to conceptually coagulate during the Decadent Movement?