Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson
( 1 2 ) T h e A e s h e t i c M o v e m e n t
(Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson)
T h e N i n e t i e s
C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s :
- the changing values embodied in Victoria’s pleasure-seeking son and heir, Edward, Prince of Wales x the opposite of his earnest-minded father, Prince Albert
- the writers’ state of mind typical neither of the earlier Victorians x nor of the 20th c. > styled as ‘Late Victorians’ or ‘the first of the ‘Moderns’’
- reactions in lit.: no more a sense of gaiety x but: of melancholy
T h e A e s t h e t i c M o v e m e n t :
- ‘art for art’s sake’ = art unconc. with controversial issues, restricted to celebrating beauty in a highly polished style
- art = independent for its having its own unique kind of value > poetry must be judged ‘as poetry and not another thing’ (T. S. Eliot)
- self-conscious about living at the end of a great c. > a deliberate fin de siècle (= end-of-c.) pose: the drawings and designs of Aubrey Beardsley
- consid. themselves anti-Victorians: the mid-Victorian earnestness of C. Dickens’s David Copperfield (1850) x the late-Victorian comedy on earnestness of O. Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
- the last heirs of the Romantics going back through D. G. Rossetti and A. Tennyson to J. Keats x but: the Romantic sensationalism developed into melancholy suggestiveness, world weariness, or mere emotional debauchery > a time of decadence and degeneration
- the 1st to absorb the infl. of the Fr. symbolist poetry: T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, & oth.
- the Aesthetes incl. O. Wilde, A. Beardsley, W. Pater, & oth. + The Rhymer’s Club members, incl. W. B. Yeats, Lionel Johnson, E. Dowson, John Davidson, Arthur Symons, & oth.
R u d y a r d K i p l i n g & O t h e r s :
- the dandyism and effeminacy of the Aesthetes x R. Kipling’s life of masculine action, and bearing of ‘the white man’s burden’ of responsibility for the civilizing mission of the Br. imperial power
P o e t r y o f t h e 1 8 8 0 s – 9 0 s :
- older generation: R. Browning, A. Tennyson, and C. A. Swinburne; to a certain extend T. Hardy
- younger generation:
- > R. Kipling’s balladry gave voice to the otherwise inarticulate, ordinary soldiers, and ‘the man on the Clapham omnibus’ > expressed middle-brow sentiments > pop. success: “Recessional”, on the Queen’s Jubilee; “The Ballad of East and West” and “Gunga Din”, on the Empire; “The Female of the Species” and “The Ladies”, on uppity women
- > O. Wilde’s Fr.-inspired decadents: “Les Ballons” and “Symphony in Yellow”, precise, refined, impressionistic, conc. with beauty x The Ballad of Reading Gaol, vulnerable and protesting
- > the Rhymer’s Club’s poised lyricism
- > A(lfred) E(dward) Housman’s (1859 – 1936) preocc. with lost illusions, death, and homoeroticism
- > Charlotte Mew’s (1869 – 1928) preocc. with unfulfilment, death, and burial
W a l t e r P a t e r ( 1 8 3 9 - 9 4 )
L i f e :
- a scholar by training and inclination
- an Oxford Uni don by profession
W o r k :
Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873)
- = a coll. of essays
- one of the 1st serious experiments in art history
- dense style: shaped around relative clauses, phrases and parentheses
- both offers an argument and withdraws from one
- advocates a refinement of sensation in pursuit of an ultimate truth in Art and Life
- urges for the appreciation of the beautiful which he identifies with the truthful
- "Not the fruit of experience, but experiences itself, is the end".
- > infl. O. Wild and W. B. Yeats
Marius the Epicurean (1885)
- = a historical novel
- as the former work marked by the hesitancy of expression
- conc.: the slow movement of a pagan Roman twd Christian conversion
- concl.: the protagonist dies on the road to martyrdom and though never formally received into the Church, the Church claims him as one of its own after his death
- x but: Marius's personal faith based on "unfolding of beauty and energy in things" => aestheticism
O s c a r W i l d e ( 1 8 5 4 – 1 9 0 0 )
L i f e :
- b. in Dublin; studied the classics
- left for Oxford; settled in London
- < infl. by the aesthetic theories of J. Ruskin and W. Pater
- aestheticism = the Br. counterpart of Decadence and Symbolism
- a spokesperson for the school of ‘art for art’s sake’ = the aesthetic movement incl. Fr. poets and critics, and a line of E poets going back through D. G. Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites to J. Keats (accord. to W.)
- a dazzling conversationalist: mastered the polished and witty wordplay
- a gifted actor: delighted in gaining attention with both his outrageous and incongruous opinions and his flamboyant style of dress
- his colourful costumes x contrasted with the sober black suits of the late mid-Victorian middle classes a typical dandy
- married and fathered 2 children x but: kept a homosexual relationship with the young poet Lord Alfred Douglas (1870 – 1945)
- sued by D.’s father for sodomy, sentenced to a 2 y. jail, consequentially divorced and bankrupt, died in a Paris exile
- a close relationship btw his life and work = both reject mid-Victorian values and provoke a response to difference
W o r k :
L i t e r a r y a n d S o c i a l C r i t i c i s m :
- = an amusingly provocative critic: enjoys his chosen roles as an aesthete and iconoclast
- questions institutions, moral imperatives, and social clichés, and explores alternative moral perspectives
The Decay of Lying (1889):
- = a Platonic dialogue
- ‘the proper aim of Art’ = ‘the telling of beautiful untrue things’
The Critic as Artist (1890):
- < develops W. Pater’s aestheticism
- art = superior to life, with no obligation to any standards of mimesis
The Truth of Masks (1891)
The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891):
- advocates a larger and expanding idea of freedom from drudgery and from the rule of machines
F i c t i o n :
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891):
- the preface: art and morality = totally separate x but: to some degree portrays the evils of self-regarding hedonism in the self-destructive and darkly sinning protagonist
- the eponymous character and protagonist = a handsome young man in a selfish pursuit of sensual pleasures
- himself fresh and healthy in appearance x but: his portrait = the image of his corrupted soul
- internal contradictions: aestheticism damned x upheld, hedonism indulged x disdained, D. as a desperate suicide x martyr
De Profundis (1905, [= from the Lat. transl. of the line of a psalm: ‘Out of the depths, I cried to you, Lord!’]):
- = his confessions written during his imprisonment
D r a m a :
- = a playwright of an aphoristic and paradoxical wit
(a) tragedies:
- > unsuccessful
Vera: or, The Nihilists (1880):
- = his 1st tragedy
The Duchess of Padua (1883):
- = a blank verse tragedy
Salome (1894):
- = the Bible account of the death of John the Baptist
- x but: shocking juxtapositions of repulsion x sexual desire, death x orgasm, etc.
- written in Fr., transl. into E by A. Douglas
- > his most influential tragedy
- > the Ger. version = the libretto of Richard Strauss’s (1864 – 1949) revolutionary opera (1915)
A Florentine Tragedy (1897)
(b) comedies:
- undercurrents of boredom, disillusion, and alienation
- evocations of flippancy and snobbery
- captures the mood of ‘irresponsibility’ challenging all pretensions except that of the artifice of the plays themselves
Lady Windermere’s Fan: A Play about a Good Woman (1892) and A Woman of No Importance (1893):
- conc.: the discovery of a dire secret
- (+) witty speeches of a dandified M aristocrat
- (−) a feminist bias in stressing the innate strength of the central F characters
An Ideal Husband (1895)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
P o e t r y :
- < admired R. Browning, D. G. Rossetti, and A. C. Swinburne
- > his 1st vol. (1881) highly derivative and excessively elaborate
also wrote following poems of distinction:
“The Harlot’s House” and “Impression du Matin” (1881) [= Fr. for ‘impression of the morning’]:
- > his distinctive perspective on city streets anticipates T. S. Eliot
“The Ballad of Reading Gaol” (1898):
- sober and emotionally high-pitched
- < written during his imprisonment
E r n e s t D o w s o n ( 1 8 6 7 – 1 9 0 0 )
L i f e :
- left Oxford without taking a degree
- led an active social life: met uni students, attended music halls, etc.
- (a) fell in love with a 12 y. old girl, courted her for 2 y. x but: she married another crushed
- > the girl = a symbol of love and innocence in some of his verse
- (b) his parents both committed suicide himself rapidly declined
- (c) died of TBC (?) / alcoholism
W o r k :
- = associated with the Aesthetes
- = member of the Rhymers’ Club (1890 – 1904)
- an unpaid reviewer for a critical magazine
- a frequent contrib. to The Yellow Book (1894 – 97)
- publ. 2 coll. of poems, a 1-act verse play, several short stories, and 2 novels in collab.
P o e t r y :
Verses (1896)
Decorations in Verse and Prose (1899)
“Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae” [= Lat. for ‘I am no more the man I was in the reign of the Good Cynara’]:
- = an exquisite poem with a Lat. title x but: written in E
- < semi-autobiog.: a lover tries to put aside his feelings for a former lover x but: fails
- > his most anthologised poem
P r o s e :
Dilemmas: Stories and Studies in Sentiment (1895)