Yu Dafu’s Acceptance And Variation Of Oscar Wilde

In the beginning of the twentieth century,the fever of western Aestheticism swept over Chinese literary circle.Some intellectuals including Yu Dafu introduced Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic ideas and translated his works.Under the influence of Wilde,in the early period of his literary career,Yu Dafu advocated slogans like “art for art’s sake” in literary criticism and showed a tendency of Aestheticism in his creation.Yu Dafu’s acceptance of Wilde is out of not only personal liking but also the request of the society.On the one hand,he accepted the ideas of Wilde positively;on the other,he accepted them selectively and made some change influenced by his own special personality,Chinese traditional culture and many other factors.The chapter one of the thesis will first give an introduction of the development of Wilde’s Aestheticism and his main ideas;then it will mention the introduction and translation of Wilde by members of Creation Society(创造社),especially those by Yu Dafu,which can associate Wilde with Yu Dafu;with all of the information given above,the author will begin analyzing the objective and subjective reasons behind the acceptance.Chapter two,with an analysis of Move to the South(《南迁》),Simple Funeral(《薄奠》)and Nights of Spring Fever(《春风沉醉的晚上》),focus on Yu Dafu’s acceptance and variation of Wilde’s“the uselessness of art”.In chapter three,the author aims to compare the similarities and differences of“beauty in ugliness”between the two writers with a close reading of Yu Dafu’s works like The Boundless Night(《茫茫夜》).The fourth chapter,centered on the analysis of Sinking(《沉沦》),mainly discusses Yu Dafu’s acceptance of decadence,a marked characteristic of Wilde’s Aestheticism.