The Aesthetic Modernity Of Schiller's On Simple And Sentimental Poetry

As a huge humanist aesthetic system, Schiller's aesthetic modernity makes up of two main works; one is Letters Upon the Aesthetic Education of Man while the other is On the Simple Poetry and Sentimental Poems. The former statically explores the representations and reasons of modernity dissimilation from the macro perspective of aesthetic game, whereas the latter dynamically straightens out the dissimilation history from the simple, classical to the sentimental, modern from the standpoint of the relationship between man and nature. However, the contemporary problem is that most of the research on Schiller's aesthetic modernity bases on Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man while least refers to On the Simple Poetry and Sentimental Poems. Regarding this, the thesis will analyze the aesthetic modernity ideology in On the Simple Poetry and Sentimental Poems from the perspectives of aesthetics and sociology so as to better interpret Schiller's aesthetic ideology. The aesthetics perspective is set to solve the problem how it is possible for aesthetics and art to be the power to criticize enlightenment modernity. The sociology perspective could help analyze how the internal conflicts specifically reflect in On the Simple Poetry and Sentimental Poems as well as the realistic meaning of Schiller's aesthetic modernity ideology.Modernity is the thesis's major background. Because of the complexity and openness of the term itself, the thesis will focus on the internal conflict in the course of modernity's rationalization——the conflict between enlightenment modernity and aesthetic modernity, and then analyzes the reasons why aesthetics could replace religion to undertake the responsibility of redemption. Meanwhile, as the social factors is the important premise of Schiller's aesthetic modernity ideology, the thesis will analyze the realistic and theoretic base of its birth through detecting the special social environment that Schiller lived in, especially the effects from the Enlightenment and French Revolution, which will also make us further understand Schiller's dialectical attitude towards enlightenment rationality and the reason why Schiller puts forward aesthetics rather than freedom.The first chapter discusses what are aesthetic modernity and the history background of its birth. Then, the second and third chapter focuses on the analysis of the dissimilation procedure from the simple to the sentimental, as well as aesthetic modernity's criticizing of enlightenment modernity which is reflected in the process of pursuing human nature's integrity. In the fourth and fifth chapter, the discussion centers on the influence of Schiler's aesthetics modernity ideology:on the one hand, his literature classification makes a great impact; on the other hand, his ideology is of great significance to the contemporary China.Two key theoretical clues exist in the main part of this thesis:one is Schiller's thought on human nature which goes through of every chapter as the target of his aesthetic modernity criticism just lies in the integrity of human nature; the other is the aesthetic relationship of man and the nature, which is the starting point for us to explore On the Simple Poetry and Sentimental Poems. In the latter, not only can we understand the uniqueness and complexity of those terms such as simple, nature, we also could have a better master of the interlocking relationship between aesthetic modernity and enlightenment modernity.