On The Literary Aesthetic Essence

The essence of literature is an old but original topic. Since the birth of literature, human beings have been unceasingly probing into it. This essay, putting literature into the social system, from the conception of its aesthetic essence and the connection with the multifarious nature of literature, discusses the aesthetic essence of literature. As aesthetic need is human being' s high mental need, the appreciation of beauty is the special method for huoan being to grasp the world, and the aesthetic relationship is the essential one between authors and life, between readers and works. So based on theory the essence of literature is to appreciate the beauty. In the light of practice the aesthetic essence of literature has different steps in the beginning, development and even the ripeness of literature activities, In the beginning process, to achieve the utilitarian aim plays a leading role and at the same tine aesthetic factors come to exist; in the development process, complex factors appear in realizing the aesthetic essence: as the utilitarian nature falls, the aesthetic nature rises and vice versa. In the ripeness process, owing to the high unity between human beings and nature, the human being completely catches its essence. "Labour creates beauty" has been completely realized and the aesthetic judgment of human beings has been developed in an all-round way. Therefore, the aesthetic essence of literature has been thoroughly realized, which does not deny and abandon the multifaceted essence of literature suchas the imitation theory, the expression theory, the pragmatism theory, the objectivity theory, the acceptation theory, the life theory and the unity-opposites theory between reappearing and expression, between objectivity and acceptation, but inherit and develop them critically. The aesthetic essence, as the core of the multifaceted nature of literature, leads and restricts it. The multifaceted nature of literature, the radiation and reflection in the special-designated literature system, is the complement to the aesthetic essence of literature. The aesthetic essence is different from the social one. The social essence is the social factor that is included in the aesthetic essence and is the base and premise of the aesthetic essence. Both of them are mixed with each other.