Variation Of Politics And Aesthetics

Western Marxist researches have already obtained abundant achievements in terms of philosophy, politics and sociology, while those on aesthetics are relatively inadequate and have left a vast space to be explored. The already-completed achievements in aesthetics fall mainly under four categories: first, comprehensive researches on the history of aesthetic thought; second, ideological studies on the thought of individual cases or different schools; third, studies exclusively on certain issues and/or aspects; fourth, comparative researches between Chinese and Western Marxist aesthetics. Among them the latter two need to be further deepened. This dissertation, unfolding itself on the correlativeness of politics with aesthetics in Western Marxism, holds that Western Marxism has undergone a variation between the two themes of politics and aesthetics; the expansion and differentiation of the connotations of both of them incarnate the logic evolution and theoretical characteristics of Western Marxist literary thought. The correlativeness of politics with aesthetics indicates the total characteristics in the social and artistic realm of the two connect mutually . It mainly inquires into the achievements in Western Marxist literary theories in terms of the correlativeness of the two. First of all, the paper distinguishes and analyses various views concerning "Western Marxism"and draws the following basic conclusions: Western Marxism is a kind of social cultural current of thought engendering in the realistic environment of western capitalism since the early 20th century. Based on the theory or methodology of classical Marxism after Marx, it criticizes capitalist society as a whole. It therefore consists of five chapters. The first chapter traces the background of theoretical history and analyses the logic route from politics to aesthetics in the system of Western Marxism. Under the new social situation of capitalism, Western Marxist theories present a Utopian doctrine of academism. The idea of "changing the world"by way of "explaining the world"becomes the common features for Western Marxist theoreticians. The reason why the correlativeness of politics with aesthetics is an important problem, lies in that theorists have been carrying through realistic criticism in political realm on the one hand and lead to literature and art in aesthetic realm on the other hand because of high recognition to the spiritual world. The correlation of politics with aesthetics focuses on the ideal track for changing reality to Western Marxism. Finally this chapter points out that Lukacs and Gramsci as the first generation of Western Marxists started the research on the analysis. The culture becomes the initial target on the realistic change, which provides the joint tache and thought terrace for the correlation of politics with aesthetics. In Chapter 2, with the aesthetic transition from realism to modernism as background, the paper inquires into the correlativeness of politics with aesthetics in 1930s'to 1960s'represented by the Frankfurt School. Marcuse, Adorno and Benjamin as the important theorists of the Frankfurt School have offered typical aesthetic viewpoints on modernism. They respectively represent different correlative ways which contain aesthetic opposition which emphasizes that art and aesthetics have political subverting potential, artistic autonomy which stresses the dialectic relation between art and reality, and special allegory expression. During this period of time the discussion about the correlativeness of politics with aesthetics has outspreaded from multiple sides. Especially the content of aesthetics expands greatly. Aesthetics has been endowed different signified, which is regarded as a vocabulary meaning freedom and liberation, as a symbol of artistic autonomy, or as that of mental experience. The aesthetics content has entirely separated from traditional disciplinary meaning. The third and the fourth chapters probe into the thought of Jameson and Eagleton. In Jameson's opinions, national allegory is an important facet in third worldliterature and the identity of the third world authors such as Lu Sun are political intellectuals. Jameson introduces political unconsciousness to the analyses of literary narration for the artistic works of realism, modernism and postmodernism. Also aesthetics of cognitive mapping is pointed out in order to research different kinds and levels of cultural objects and to establish postmodernist cultural theory. Jameson's researches intensify, or magnify rather, the correlativeness of politics with aesthetics and this cognition has expanded the cultural space for subjective consciousness and objective society. To Eagleton, distinct trend of politics appears in the inside correlation of literature, aesthetics with ideology. Politics and aesthetics have got extensive theoretical meaning on the cultural and social level. The correlativeness of them is expressed directly and obviously by way of category reconstruction. The identity of politics exists in a state of symbiosis with literary theory and aesthetic thought but not disappears. Chapter 5 is a general conclusion. Firstly, from comparison and integration it summarizes the total development of the topic in the Western Marxist theory and describes its basic theoretical clues with the total characteristic. It divides the topic into four types, namely, type of political authority, type of political tendency, type of artistic autonomy(or aesthetic independency),and type of aesthetic subversion(or aesthetic substitution).They have been partly intercrossed but one of them has usually predominated over individual theorist. The second part of the chapter sums up the mutual communion and influence between Chinese and Western Marxism in the contemporary dialogue. Such conclusion is drawn that the correlativeness of politics with aesthetics traverses from contravention to conformity in the theoretical texts of Western Marxism. The correlativeness includes the separation and even conceives the integration, which surmounts the scope of "the relation of art and politics"and breaks through the limit of the proposition in the static state. The development of the theoretical thinking produces an active reference to our Marxist aesthetics at present.In Western Marxist theory the boundary of politics has already been expanded from systematic entity to cultural and spiritual realm, from classical Marxist view of practice to change the world, to the political idea of the Cultural Revolution. Aesthetics as traditional single disciplinary conformation turns to multidisciplinary form in the background of modern scientific development. The correlativeness of aesthetics with politics changes from extrinsic, compelling, single-track to intrinsic, automatic, expansive with different methods. The great transition of the content of politics and aesthetics means a necessary choice to keep the theory energetic and valid. In a word, the main innovations in this dissertation demonstrate themselves in three aspects. The first is to research on Western Marxism by the standpoint of the correlativeness of politics with aesthetics which combines the topical discussion with the background of theoretical history. It probes into the special research on Western Marxist aesthetics by virtue of the choice of the problem. The second is to divide the correlative type of politics with aesthetics basing on the former theoretical results and the history of the problem. The correlativeness of politics with aesthetics is an important question of Marxist literary theory though the analysis of correlative type was absent. This dissertation has drawn a beginning conclusion. The third is to interpret the theoretical difference and thinking correlation in the Sino-West by way of comparison. Just to the problem case the paper puts forward personal opinion on comparability and otherness between the Chinese and Western Marxist aesthetics and sums up the influences of the Western Marxist aesthetics on Chinese contemporary aesthetics. Due to many complicated reasons of historical tradition, cultural reality and social ages, researches on politics and aesthetics subject exist in different conditions in the two systems of Chinese and Western Marxism. For them the concept can be transformed greatly and the interpretation also be changed. Comparatively, it is...