Aestheticism In Modern Poetics: China And The West

This dissertation is an influential study of foreign poetics in modern Chinese context, which emphasizes on carding the clue of its dissemination and development, then surveys the cultural mechanism of modern poetics transformation. The question is how the creators absorbed and transformed the foreign poetics into a part of modern Chinese poetics according to classical Chinese poetics, then we can analyses its success or failure, advantages and disadvantages. As to the research method, we observe the 20th century Chinese poetics from the perspective of comparative poetics and aesthetic modernity.This dissertation is divided into eight chapters. Based on the comparative perspective of Chinese-Western cultures and aesthetics, this dissertation conveys the formation of modern poetics in China, and pursues the reception mechanism, construction characteristic and development logic. From this new perspective, we examine the formation of Chinese poetics in the first part of the 20th century. The introduction raises topics about modern Chinese poetics. The first chapter analyses Wang Guowei's introduction of art modernity to China, which conflicted with classical poetics, thus began a new era of modern aesthetic consciousness. The second chapter discusses No-utilitarianism advocated by some leading exponents in the earlier stage of Creation Society, especially Guo Moruo and Yu Dafu, which is the amendments to "Aesthetic No-interests". The third thinks the literary aestheticism and creation practice by the scholars of new Moon School, especially Wen Yiduo and Xu Zhimo, marked the establishment of aestheticism in the history of modern poetics. The forth, Zhu Guangqian's and Liang Zongdai's construction of theory system marked the final formation of aestheticism. The fifth to the eighth discusses the relationship between modernism literature (including New Humanism, Naturalism, Symbolism and Expressionism) and western literary theory, and believes the formation of modern Chinese poetics is the result of the interaction among western literary theory, modern Chinese context and classical poetics tradition.This dissertation concludes as fellows: 1) The development of modern Chinesepoetics is a process of drawing on the experience of foreign poetics. From Wang Guowei to Nine-leaf School, the pursuit of literary and artistic ontology is consistent. The emphasis of ontology and the writers' spirit freedom is a common tendency. 2) Since it was introduced to China, the connotation of foreign poetics had been changed from the stipulation of aesthetic perception and consciousness to the stipulation of aesthetic and artistic function. 3) To study comparative poetics from the inter-cultural perspective, we should think the unique value and national characteristics of Chinese poetics at the background of world poetics, and seek the mutual identification and supplement with other national poetics, thus establish the world poetics to make poetics objective and scientific on the basis of eastern and western literary experience.