Aesthetics and Literature at the Turn of the 20th Century
A New Aesthetics for the End of the Century
-John Ruskin (1819-1900):
- Advocated a return to medieval aesthetics.
- Emphasized the social and moral dimension of art, believing it should be useful for society.
- Wrote essays highlighting the social issues of his time.
- Professor of art at Oxford.
-Walter Pater:
- Also a professor at Oxford.
- Believed that the consumer of art is what truly matters.
- Did not claim that art should convey any specific message.
The Aesthetic Movement:
- Originated in France.
- Individual lives should be lived with intensity, and beauty is the most important thing to strive for.
- Members were known as decadent writers.
- Defended the idea of”Art for art’s sake” with no connection between art and morality.
- The idea of the bohemian writer is linked to the decadent writer.
- Life is about having fun, not about living for long.
- Rejected Ruskin and Arnold’s ideas about utility.
-Oscar Wilde (1854-1900):
- Inheritor of the aesthetics movement.
- Had many different facets.
- Was inspired by Pater and Ruskin, but ultimately more aligned with Pater.
- Was a married man but desired to live a full life.
- Had an affair with another man, which led to his imprisonment.
- Was the first writer to use wit in his works.
- Wrote short stories and fairy tales (often with moralistic themes).
- Wavered between scandals and religious morality.
- Also wrote drama, beginning in the 1880s.
- Was very successful for his comedies (The Importance of Being Earnest).
Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray:
- Art is not concerned with morality.
- Artists are privileged because they are creators of beauty.
- Art is not meant to be useful, but rather to possess beauty.
- Shows affinity with the aesthetics movement.
The Importance of Being Earnest:
1-Characters:
- Double lives help Jack (Ernest) and Algernon (Bambury) live other lives.
- The older characters are more traditional and humble in origin.
- There is a movement in the social scale, with the younger characters being born into a higher class.
- All characters share a high social status and have something to hide.
- They invent fictional stories about themselves.
- Cecily creates a fictional diary about her and Jack’s love story.
- These fictional stories represent what the characters truly desire to be.
- The youth seem to live a full life (aesthetics movement).
2-Marriage:
- Frivolous approach to marriage.
- Women’s attitudes are more in line with conventions, while men seem to fall in love more freely.
- Lady Bracknell subverts gender roles, as she is in control of everything.
- However, she remains conservative, perpetuating the role of women.
3-Respectability:
- Money, background, ignorance, investments (middle-class) are important.
- Middle-class and aristocratic values are mingled.
- Respectability is not based on personal features.
4-Romance and Respectability:
- All characters desire romance and respectability.
- They marry ideals, not people (superficiality).
- Not a guarantee for a happy life.
Double-standards of the Victorian period are present. Fiction and hypocrisy are needed. Ways of thinking are not compatible with the fashions, creating tension.
Approaching the 20th Century: Horror Stories
A kind of narrative that is not realistic. They can be read to escape everyday life or for their metaphorical essence.
Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are considered to be gothic literature. The Goths (Germanic tribe) were seen by the English as a liberating force from the classical world. By the Italians, it was seen as something savage. It was also considered the essence of the English, together with the Anglo-Saxons. It also embodied the dark side of civilization for the chaos they brought (in opposition to the Roman law and order).
This literature emphasizes the supernatural and passions. Terror literature and Horror literature are not the same. “Terror and horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; the other freezes you…” Terror is something subtle, while horror is explicit and shocking. The gothic works of the Brontë sisters would be considered rather terror literature.
-Robert L. Stevenson (1850-1894):
- Born in Scotland, brought up in a family of engineers.
- Weak of health, often sent to the continent (France).
- Associated himself with the Bohemians of France, adopting the lifestyle of the Dandies.
- Started writing traveling literature.
- Also worked on adventure stories, horror stories, and short stories.
Dualism and Open/Close Spaces, Light/Darkness in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:
At a moment Dr. Jekyll feels comfortable with Mr. Hyde, since this allows him to act in a way he wouldn’t be able to act if he were Dr. Jekyll. However, the bad presence of Mr. Hyde takes over. Close spaces are linked to Mr. Hyde, they are the only mean so that it doesn’t get out. The transformation from Jekyll to Hyde is like the shift from day to night. He is even physically transformed when he turns into Hyde. // The distinction between outer and inner spaces (even in the mind) is confusing. There was a difference in what happened in the streets and in the homes of the people in the Victorian period. In this work, as well as in The Importance of Being Earnest, there is a creation of an alter ego to get rid of the oppression of everyday’s life. To be earnest is to accept the fact that reality is made up of double standards. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde there is a battle going on between the forces. There is a fascination for a divided self in the Victorian period (as in Frankenstein): in both of them the ‘monster’ had initial good intentions, but in one case society and in the other drugs turn them both evil.
–Bram Stoker (1847-1912): He wrote Dracula in a tradition of established vampire tales (The Vampyre, Carmilla, Olalla). These stories tend not to take place in England, but across Europe and in the past. The story of Dracula is set in Transylvania and London. Stoker did a lot of research to write the story. The figure of Dracula is based on Vlad the Impaler. Dracul was a military order, which meant ‘devil or dragon’. In the period when it was written, it was fashionable to write about a conquest of Great Britain or its colonies. Dracula involves a threat coming from the East and of expanding vampirism. The story has been very popular and has been adapted one and again. Dualism: -Day/night: everything happens at night because Jonathan oversleeps and the Count makes him live during night. He loses the sense of time, he is getting used to Dracula’s lifestyle. -Vigour/death: the Count looks old and weak, even though his strength is astonishing. The Count shows the duality of beast (wolves, sight of blood) and gentleman (clean, good manners). He is very pale, while his mouth is very red. -Business/mystery: they both exist side by side. -Familiarity/Strangeness: the library is familiar to Jonathan (books in English, makes him feel comfortable) but at the same time he is in a remote castle. The count speaks English. 3) The lack of mirrors in the castle is because Dracula cannot see himself in them (due to him being dead and not having soul). Jonathan needs the mirror to be in proper shape. The closed doors represent knowledge to which Jonathan will never have access. It is an invitation to unlock and explore them. 4) In Dr. Jekyll… the Dr. and Mr. Hyde are battling against each other. In Dracula, Jonathan is battling not to succumb to the dark side that Dracula represents. In the first novel, the inner spaces provide shelter, in the castle of Dracula it is indoors where the real danger is. He even buys a similar house in London, since he wants to import his lifestyle, way of being and thinking, barbaric tendencies to England. His polite manners help him in his quest, since people are attracted to him by their own will. It is a threat that comes from abroad, doesn’t develop within us. In the Victorian period there was fear that what had been done to the people in the colonies may get back to them. //-Kipling, Recessional. It is directed to God. It is a critique of colonialism. Some things can endure (Jesus), others are ephemeral (all our colonial actions). It may be a cautionary poem, we shouldn’t neglect our Christian principles in the colonies. Colonialism was seen as a right, until it as questioned for the barbarian acts of the colonizers. –Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness He was of Polish origin. He had an experience in Congo which features in this work, he witnessed the atrocities that appear in the work. They opened his eyes. Autobiographical novel. The protagonist is Marlow. 1-Framing: the English want to civilize the Africans now, but back in time, it was the Romans civilizing the “savage” English. There’s a parallelism. The Congo river results tempting (snake). Marlow thinks he is going back in time when he travels up the Congo. 2-Nature: jungle, savage, wild, dark, impenetrable, mysterious. There is an opposition within colonialism: the Europeans bring the ‘light’, but there is a darkness in their enterprises. The jungle represents something savage and prehistoric (which si possible to happen in other places too). 3-The Company: set in Brussels. Very silent city, with tombs; which contrasts with Congo, which is far more lively. There’s no possibility for something new to arrive to the company, it is destructive rather than creative. His experience in Africa is a baptism of fire, he is born again. The map is some sort of fascination for Marlow. There were areas in the map that were unexplored. He is an explorer in heart. 4-Women: we come across men mostly in the story. Few women: Kurz’s fiancé, the mistress, the aunt,… The women in the story tend to preserve things/values, while men just destroy everything. They seem to have some power though. Marlow hates people who lie, but the first thing he does is lie to his boss and fiancé. 5-Power: The manager of the company will be the representative of the colonial power or forces. It is a materialistic, very violent and blind kind of power that will overwhelm the rest of them. Kurz is portrayed as a God, he is the ideal of what a man should be like. However, in the end he appears like a phantom. Still his voice keeps being very strong and persuasive (snake hissing). 6-Marlow wants to develop his career. Curiosity about Kurz is what pushes him to carry on with his voyage. He is obsessed with the idea of what Kurz represents. When he discovers what Kurz really has done, he starts discovering the dark side of man. In Kurz, he sees a person that has given in colonialism. There is a real possibility that if Marlow decides to stay in Congo, he would have ended up becoming a new Kurz. 7-Light and Darkness (good & evil): colonialism represents both extremes. It complicates our conceptions about civilization and savage. It is said to be a modernist novel, not a Victorian. Portrayal of duality.