This is a study of what I argue is a neglected side of Aestheticism. A standard definition of
Aestheticism is that its practitioners turn away from the general current of modernity to
protest its utilitarian and materialistic values, but this generalization ignores the profound
influence of contemporary philosophical and scientific thought on such major figures of
British Aestheticism as Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. This study focuses on Aesthetes
who are not in flight from modernity. I call their type of Aestheticism "Epicurean
Aestheticism" and argue that since this temperament is characterized by a willingness to
engage with the flux of modern times it must be distinguished from the more familiar,
escapist form of Aestheticism I call "Platonic Aestheticism." I propose that Aestheticism
be viewed as a spectrum with Epicurean Aestheticism on one side and the Platonic variety
on the other. While Platonic Aesthetes like W. B . Yeats and Stephane Mallarme continue
the Romantic project of trying to counter modernity with various idealist and absolutist
philosophies, Epicurean Aesthetes adopt materialist and relativistic strategies in their
desire to make the most of modern life. I argue that the first unmistakable signs of
Epicurean Aestheticism are to be found in Thomas De Quincey, that the sensibility is fully
formulated be Pater, continued by Wilde, and finds a current representative in Tom
Stoppard. All Aesthetes are dedicated to the pursuit of beauty, but Platonic Aesthetes seek
beauty in an eternal and transcendent realm, while Epicurean Aesthetes have given up such
absolutist habits of thought. Pater writes: "Modern thought is distinguished from ancient
by its cultivation of the "relative" spirit in place of the "absolute." Epicurean Aesthetes
want a new aesthetic that will parallel the paradigm shift from absolutism to relativism.
While a nostalgic, quasi-religious longing for a purely ideal realm characterizes Platonic
Aesthetes, Epicurean Aesthetes accept that the high, idealistic road to eternal beauty is
closed. Instead of lamenting this fact, they start looking for beauty among the uncertainties
of the phenomenal world: by viewing life as an aesthetic spectacle to be observed and
experimented on with playful detachment they become Epicureans of the flux of
modernity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/8482 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Emilsson, Wilhelm |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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