Preliminary Exploration On The Aesthetic Features Of Columns In The21th Century

The thesis takes newspaper columns in the21th century as object of study,attempting to analyse their aesthetic features.From the beginning of the21th century, there is a wide range of newspapercolumns and the articles have many common features. For instance, in terms ofwriting motive, their purpose is to catch the readers’ eye and tend to be recreational;in terms of writing skills, many catchwords are adpoted and new ideas are started. Sothe columns cover a large varieties of topics, showing apparently literarycharacteristics.The entertainment orientation of columns is affected by post-modernism andconsumerism, which makes it an form of consumptive culture. The columns areeasy-going and desultory both in layout and writing style. There is no active seek fortheme, thought and significance, nor is there any discipline on moral and aesthetics aswith traditional essay. The major purpose of the columns is to be easy on the eyes andto have fun.In the consumption age, what pepole care about is how to “consume” culture, whileone important feature of culture is how to become more consumed. As a kind ofconsumption culture, the columns pursue performance and enjoyment. They attachgreat importance to form and time-validity.The rise of columns has a colse connection with two types of reading inclinationsince the new century: One is the soaring proportion of digital reading, the otherfragmentation reading.The columnists share common views towards their writing purpose, significanceand techniques. These views are highly coincident with the features of consumptionculture. They agree that columns are a kind of fast moving consumer goods, andmeeting the readers’ needs is the first priority.The techniques of columns is full of “criticism and deconstruction”. This “criticismand deconstruction” break through the traditional writing skills in many ways and hasmade some explorations and attempts with new skills. Some of the new skills have been criticized because they violate the standard Chinese, however, the new trialbrings about a great deal of fun to readers indeed.