Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde dramatist, poet, novelist and essayist, spokesman for the school of “Art for art's sake”, the leader of the Aesthetic movement

Aestheticism • The basic theory of the aesthetic – “art for art‘s sake” The chief representative of the movement in England was Oscar Wilde, with his The Picture of Dorian Gray. Aestheticism places art above life, and holds that life should imitate art, not art imitate life. According to aesthetes, all artistic creation is absolutely subjective as opposed to objective. Art should be free from any influence of egoism(利己主义[i:]). Only when art is for art's sake can it be immortal. It should be restricted to contributing beauty in a highly polished style.

Art for Art’s sake • That art is nothing to do with morality (art is not moral immoral but amoral), that the best of art is pure art, that the duty of an art critic is to tell his own impressions of a work of art, and that the function of art is to attract, to please and to provide enjoyment. But he elaborated on this theory of art for art’s sake, and even declared that it is not art that reflects nature but it is nature that is the reflection of art.

The pioneer dramatists • a. The most celebrated dramatists in the last decade of the 19th century were Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw ,who ,in a sense, pioneered the modern drama . • b. Wilde expressed a satirical and bitter attitude towards the upper-class people ,in his masterpiece ,The Importance of Being Earnest .

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Oscar Wilde and his works

道林·格雷的画像》（The Picture of Dorian Gray，1891年）

《快乐王子和其他故事》（The Happy Prince and Other Tales，1888年） 《石榴屋》（A House of Pomegranates，1891年） 《诗集》（Poems，1881年）