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Art and society: a consideration of the relations between aesthetic theories and social commitment with reference to Katherine Mansfield and Oscar Wilde Kinoshita, Yukiko The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author For additional information about this publication click this link. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/1533 Information about this research object was correct at the time of download; we occasionally make corrections to records, please therefore check the published record when citing. For more information contact [email protected] ART AND SOCIETY: A CONSIDERATION OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN AESTHETIC THEORIES AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT WITH REFERENCE TO KATHERINE MANSFIELD AND OSCAR WILDE By Yukiko Kinoshita Submitted for the degree of PhD in the Department of English Queen Mary and Westfield College University of London March 1997 0 2 ABSTRACT AUTHOR: Yukiko Kinoshita Thesis Title: Art and Society: A Consideration of the Relations between Aesthetic Theories and Social Commitment with Reference to Katherine Mansfield and Oscar Wilde Degree: PhD English Description: The chief purpose of this project is to discuss Katherine Mansfield's aesthetic ideas in connection with those of Oscar Wilde and fin de siècle Aestheticism. The proposed study will also analyse her Modernist technique in Symbolist terms, and consider her major themes from aesthetic and political points of view. The primary, underlying concern of this study is to negotiate two, often opposing critical values: the aesthetic and the political. The artist's negotiation of the conflict between aesthetics (art) and politics (society) is a controversial 'modern' critical issue: the issue all serious artists and critics have been facing and consciously dealing with since the late nineteenth century. Fin de siècle Aestheticism and Symbolism form a dominant stream of Modernism because of this intensified shared concern over the delicate relationship between art, life and society. Wilde's stress on the autonomy of art is related to his notion of an ideal relationship between art, life and society: he shows a keen awareness that the autonomy of art and the aesthetic self-realization of the artist could be realized only in a society without any social, cultural or moral hegemony, that is, in a society without moral, social or political oppression. The Wildean 'poeticization' of society lies in his politicization of art; and this aesthetic influences Mansfield's. French Symbolism suggested to Wilde and Mansfield an aesthetic which enabled them to realize their Aestheticism. Wildean and Mansfieldian Symbolism attempt to 'shock' the reader: they aim at breaking the reader's reading habit, and his or her stereotypic point of view and fixed sense of values. Here lie not only the political potential of Symbolism as a Modernist aesthetic but also the aesthetic and political link between their Symbolism and avant-garde Modernism. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 1. The Autonomy of Art and New Romanticism: Wilde's Symbolism in "The Decay of Lying" 32 II. Utopian Communism and Epicurean Individualism in "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" 49 III. Anarchism and Symbolist Aesthetics in The Importance of Being Earnest 68 W. INTERSECTION: Katherine Mansfield's Link with Oscar Wilde and the Fin de Siècle Aestheticism and Symbolism 86 V. "Prelude" and "At the Bay": A Prelude to Katherine Mansfield's Recurring Themes 111 Vi. Symbolist Theme and Structure in "Bliss" 145 VII. The Menacing Phantom of the Father: Patriarchal Oppression in "The Daughters of the Late Colonel" 164 VIII. Aestheticism and Women's Freedom in "Marriage a la Mode" 182 IX. Katherine Mansfield's Social Awareness in "life of Ma Parker" 202 X. Aestheticism and Politics in "The Garden-Party" 216 CONCLUSION: The Political Potential of Aestheticism and Symbolism: Strangeness in Beauty and Brepking Habit 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY 268 4 ABBREVIATIONS All references to Katherine Mansfield's stories in the text are to The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981) unless otherwise stated. Also, all references to Oscar Wilde's writings in the text are to Oscar Wilde: Plays, Prose Writings and Poem, introd. Terry Eagleton (London: David Campbell, 1991) unless otherwise stated. The abbreviations of other key works of Wilde and Mansfield and several other key texts are as follows: Collected Letters of KM. The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, ed. Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott (4 vols. projected; Oxford: Clarendon, 1984-). Critical Writings of KM. The Critical Writings of Katherine Mansfield, ed. and introd. Clare Hanson (London: Macmillan, 1987). Journal of K.M. Journal of Katherine Mansfield The Definitive Edition, ed. John Middleton Murry (London: Constable, 1954). Letters of KM. The Letters of Katherine Mansfield, ed. John Middleton Murry (2 vols; London: Constable, 1954). Complete Works of O.W. Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, introd. Merlin Holland, Vyvyan Holland, and Owen Dudley Edwards (Glasgow: HarperCollins, 1994). The Manifesto Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, trans. Samuel Moore, introd. and notes. A. J. P. Taylor (London: Penguin, 1985). Politics Raymond Williams, The Politics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists, ed. and introd. Tony Pinkney (London: Verso, 1989). Introduction 5 INTRODUCTION A Truth in art is that whose contradictory is also true. (Oscar Wilde The Truth of Masks "9' Why must thinking and existing be ever on two different planes? Why will the attempt of Hegel to transform subjective processes into objective world- processes not work out? (Katherine Mansfield Journal [26 November 192 J])2 To see the compatibility of seemingly opposing notions-- is always challenging to our intellect. Our mind's tendency to group, categorize and stereotype is a process of clarification, but we must not stop there. This intellectual habit must be broken as well: constantly to challenge our preconceptions and binary thinking by seeking the compatibility of 'incompatible' notions is the way to reach a truth. If we progress at all, our progress lies in breaking our intellectual habit. This is one route the Modernists propose. I will take it. 1 PerspectIve The primary, underlying concern of my project is to negotiate two, often opposing, critical values: the aesthetic and the political. The artist's and the critic's negotiation of the conflict between aesthetics and politics-- their aspirations for artistic or intellectual perfection and their social commitment-- is an important modern issue: the issue all serious artists and critics have been facing and consciously dealing with since the late nineteenth century. I use the word 'modern' to refer to a psychological, cultural or political state which became unprecedentedly distinct around the turn of the last century and is still (or rather, increasingly) relevant to our contemporary consciousness. 3 The conflict between aesthetics and politics involves several other, interrelated, modern critical issues: the artist's relationship with the reading public, his or her reaction to the bourgeois Establishment's cultural hegemony, the definition of 'culture' and 'tradition,' and the reconciliation between the artist's individualism (his or her freedom and autonomy which society should guarantee) and communalism (social and cultural roles which the public expects art to perform). The development of the reading public, which resulted from the empowerment of the middle-class, the spread of general education and the growth of the publishing market, changed the relationship between the intellectual in general (the artist in particular) and society. As cultural hegemony shifted from the aristocracy to the middle-class, the artist was forced to deal with market relations. The Introduction 6 artist was also made aware of the need to negotiate with the 'utilitarian' (or authority- serving) roles bourgeois society demands. For bourgeois society has found in art an ingenious means to perpetuate the status-quo: it desires to in9titutionalize art as a source of social and political stability. The artist as an intellectual was, on the other hand, not allowed to be indifferent to the growing social inequalities and the tensions between the upper and middle classes and the lower classes. The advancement of Capitalism led to the disintegration of rural communities; the immigration of the poor population into the city made social inequalities between the privileged and the oppressed visible; this marked state of exploitation led the intellectual to question the socioeconomic system which intensified class division. The niiieteenth century saw the rise and development of revolutionary political ideologies like Socialism (or Communism) and Anarchism. Nineteenth-century and early-twentieth century literature witnessed the emergence of Romanticism, Naturalism, Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism and other avant-garde Modernist schools. All these aesthetic movements are 'modern' because the aesthetic principles of each movement reflect the artist's keen awareness as an 'artist' (as compared with an 'artisan'), social consciousness, and grasp and vision of culture and the significance of art in society: they reflect the issues our contemporary artists and critics are still consciously dealing with. I am aware that each of these political and cultural issues is dense: although the discussion
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