Woolf's Novel Creation And British Aestheticism

Virginia Woolf,an important representative writer of modernist literature in the 20th century,persisted in pursuing the beauty and innovation of art all her life.Although Woolf is well known for her technique of stream of consciousness in the novels,she has deep association with British aestheticism.Her artistic ideas,literary creation and the attitude toward life have many things in common with British aestheticism.The emergence of Woolfs aesthetic consciousness was related to the family environment in which she lived.Under the guidance of her father,Woolf read many works of writers who were aesthetes or inclined to aestheticism,and gained a direct feeling of beauty in childhood.Woolfs aesthetic sensibility on the visual level was cultivated by the appreciation of photography and painting in the "Little Dutch House" cultural circles which Woolf s mother participated in.Influenced by the aesthetic ideas of her friends in Bloomsbury Group,Woolfs self-conscious practice of"dissolving art into life" in dress,decoration and behavior pushing her walk into the depths of British aestheticism.The connection between Woolf and British aestheticism is first reflected in the aesthetic concepts and writing.In the aesthetics of Woolf and British aestheticism,artistic autonomy is the basic principle.Both Woolf and British aesthetes regard beauty as the fundamental purpose of art,affirm the unique existence of art as an imaginary world,and emphasize the principal of impersonality,imagination and poetry in artistic creation.In the forms of art,Woolf and the British aesthetes unanimously discover the law of mutual infiltration of literature and art,and integrate painting and music into formal design to enhance artistic expression.Out of alertness to the limited time and space,Woolf and the British aesthetes propose a modern aesthetics of "instantaneity",which is developed on two levels:creation aesthetics and philosophy of life.Woolf also showed a strong aesthetic tendency in her novels.Like the British aesthetes,Woolf has shaped some images of "aesthetes" in her novels.These "aesthetes" not only persistently pursued literature and art,but also treated life with an aesthetic attitude.In addition to the aestheticization of the material level of life,they also used the power of aesthetics to connect individuals with others and rebuilt the perceptual existence of individuals.Woolf took advantage of painting and music to enrich the form of novels just like the British aesthetes.But different from the pursuit of pure formalism in British aestheticism,Woolf tried to express the emotions of characters and writers with color,light,music and other elements while intentionally pursuing the beauty of form.British aesthetes emphasized the grasp of the moment of art,highlighting the moment when the protagonists pursued beauty or pleasure in their creation.There were also a lot of descriptions of instantaneous scenes in Woolfs works,but these moments were more important for the protagonist to gain spiritual enlightenment.The characters can return to their true life and ultimately obtain a clear state of mind by grasping the "moment of existence".Although Woolf advocated the beauty of art and paid attention to the beauty of novels as art,she was not purely an artist of aestheticism as her novels were deeply concerned with the individual who was overwhelmed by the modern world and trapped in the dilemma of spiritual world.While writing about the living feelings of modem people,she integrated her own living experience into the artistic conception of works,and evoked readers' reflection on the essence of life and human existence in the form of beauty.