Research On William Morris’s Aesthetic Thought Of "Art-based Socialism"

William Morris was the most influential socialist thinker and practitioner in Britain in the 19th century.As the pioneer of the early socialist movement and the founder of the modern art design movement,William Morris made his thought of "art-based socialism"(hereafter referred to as "art socialism")a unique kind of Marxist art theory system.Morris integrated the theoretical dimension of "art and aesthetics" into socialist thought and created the unique thought of "art socialism".The thought itself,together with his keen feelings for aesthetics,sharp critical spirit,pursuit to high ideal,tenacity and resilience,revolutionary will and abundant practical abilities,made outstanding contributions to the early socialist movement.However,there are still many deficiencies in public attention to and academic research on Morris.The academic circles at home and abroad have never paid enough attention to the research on Morris’s aesthetic thought of "art socialism".Thus,Morris’s brilliant contribution and value to the early socialist movement have nearly been neglected or ignored,and his influence has been limited to the narrow professional fields such as art and design.As Maynard Solomon,the contemporary American scholar,pointed out in his book Marxism and Art that William Morris was perhaps the first maj or creative artist to become a Marxist that was not a light-hearted one,and that his contribution to the aesthetics of Marxism is so peculiar that it has not yet been realistically appraised.Taking the formation and evolution of utopian socialism as the historical context,Morris’s literature as the basis for text interpretation,Morris’s aesthetic thought of "art socialism" as the central concept,Marxist philosophy and aesthetics as the theoretical perspective,and contemporary capital criticism of socialist modernity as the problem consciousness,the author of this dissertation explores the inner and deep connection between Morris’s art and aesthetic theory and socialist political thought,in the dialectical integration of the "original historical context" and "contemporary interpretation",so as to present the spirit and theoretical purpose of Morris’s "art socialism" comprehensively and systematically.This dissertation holds that the aesthetic thought of art socialism created by William Morris is a unique Marxist art theory system."Art socialism" is an important symbol of Morris’s mature thought.Having this as the core idea,we will stop the tendency of onesided understanding of Morris.Aiming at the issues existing in previous research,the author hopes to summarize the purpose of this research as the core concept of an "Integral William Morris".The so-called "Integral Morris" is a comprehensive and systematic presentation of Morris’s ideological theory,which includes two dimensions:the presentation of the "Integral Morris" in the original historical context and the presentation of the "Integral Morris" in the contemporary perspective.To present an integral and comprehensive Morris in the original historical context requires us to present the formation and development of Morris’s thought on the basis of historical data and on the premise of restoring the historical context as much as possible,on the basis of following the historical reality to the greatest extent possible historical track.To present an integral and comprehensive Morris in the contemporary perspective requires us to take the Marxist criticism of capitalist modernity as the context of intellectual history,and to place Morris in the context of Western Marxism,especially in the intellectual historical context of the British cultural Marxism,so that we can better present the historic significance and contemporary value of Morris’s aesthetic thought of "art socialism".Taking the development of British capitalist society at the end of the 19th century as the historical context and the early socialist ideological movement as the ideological context,this dissertation explores the formation of Morris’s aesthetics of art socialism,and analyzes how Morris changed from a romantic to a socialist statesman.Meanwhile,it sorts out the influence of important people and things such as the Pre-Raphaelites,Dante G.Rossetti,Ruskin,Marx,and Utopian thought on the formation of Morris’s thought,and then clarifies the source of Morris’s art socialism.The dissertation argues that Morris’s devotion to the socialist ideal of art was positive and progressive,and had a great impact on the world socialist and communist movements at the end of the 19th century and even in the 20th century.His socialist thought is an artistic or utopian socialist thought.Whether he expressed his socialist ideas in poems,novels and speeches,or actively participated in various socialist groups,organizations and actively conducted political activities;whether he actively promoted the revival of medieval Gothic art and handicrafts to resist large-scale mechanized production,or advocated and insisted on choosing images of animals and plants from nature,characters and stories from the Bible and legends as his decorative art elements for his handicrafts,etc.,he hoped that,through artistic labor,people’s work and life would become pleasant,and art could be used to serve the general public,so that everyone would be able to enjoy art and artistic design,to change the disaster brought about by the capitalist social system,and to establish an artistic utopian socialist or communist society.This research emphasizes perusing and analyzing the text of a single case,and conducts detailed sorting,textual research,illustration and elaboration on its background,writing process,version origin,stylistic structure,concept translation,etc.,especially for key works and key chapters.The author tries to start with the original text,familiarize herself with the text,and truly understand the real meaning and the ideological connotation of the text.At the same time,the dissertation focuses on the extraction of special topics in the close reading of the texts,with both the vertical and horizontal integration.There should be both a synchronic analysis of the text cases and a diachronic analysis of the ideological development,in order to solve the problem of accurately interpreting Morris’s art socialism.For example,a comprehensive and in-depth interpretation and analysis of aesthetic and literary theoretical issues such as Morris’s "good work","useful work","useless toil","lesser art","art socialism",and "utopian imagination" so as to highlight the general characteristics of Morris’s thought of "art socialism".The author expects to achieve a comprehensive interpretation of the connotation of Morris’s major theoretical concepts based on detailed reading of the text,combined with the internal continuity of Morris’s thought.In short,only by integrating the perspective of case study and thematic analysis,can the author achieve the better textual interpretation of "seeing the spirit in the details".Following the principle of dialectical integration of history and logic,this dissertation comprehensively and systematically explores the classic,modern,contemporary and realistic meanings of Morris’s art socialism in the classical,modern and local dimensions.As to Morris in the classic dimension,the dissertation focuses on exploring the inherent relationship between Morris’s theoretical thought and classical Marxism and Western Marxism;as to Morris in the modern dimension,the dissertation attaches importance to exploring the aesthetic modernity of Morris’s theoretical thought,and move further on the internal relationship between Morris’s theoretical thought and contemporary aesthetics and art theory;as to Morris in the local dimension,the dissertation centers on the influence of Morris’s theoretical thought on Chinese art theory as well as its significance and value.The research of this dissertation on Morris’s art practice and art socialism theory has two purposes:one is to contribute to the Chinese academic circles’ understanding of the basic western research status quo of Morris’s literary and artistic thought,aesthetic thought and its development;the other is to break through the situation where in more than a century in China,the mainstream of Morris’s research remains partial and simplified.By doing this,the author not only provides another rich theoretical resource for the exploration of the Sinicization of Marxist art theory,but also helps to initially establish a pluralistic pattern of contemporary research on Morris in China.