scholarly journals Aesthetic Moral Metaphor in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Its Influence on Modern Chinese Aesthetic Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Fang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Morality ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
The Social ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
The Devil

In “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde displays his artistic pursuit on art, life and society. Although he advocates “art for art’s sake”, yet his works could not be isloated from the social morality. In the novel, as Dorian sells his soul to the devil for his eternal beauty in appearance, the portait burdens the change of his ugliness. In some respect, the portait is a moral metaphor of Dorian himself. Basil Hallward, the painter of the protait, can be regarded as an artist metaphor to Wilde himself. Lord Henry Wotton, a famous dandy in the novel, manifests Wilde’s aestheic belief in lifestyle. So by analyzing the three main characters, this paper probes into the aesthetic moral metaphors involved in the novel, and talks about its influence on the modern Chinese aesthetic literature.

scholarly journals Art, the Artist and Ethics in Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Zrinka Frleta
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
Art And Ethics

This paper examines ideological and philosophical premises of aestheticism, presented in Wilde's critical essays (The Critic as Artist and The Decay of Lying), and epigrams in the preface to the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which both offer a philosophical context to the novel. Aestheticism emphasized that art can not be subordinated to moral, social, religious and didactic goals, because its ultimate goal is art itself, l'art pour l'art (art for art's sake). „Art never expresses anything but itself.“ „All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals.“ „Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.“ „Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.“ (Wilde, 1891). The relations between art and reality (concealment of reality) and art and ethics (an ethical function of art) have been explored through the interaction of the characters of Basil Hallward and Sibyl Vane with Dorian Gray. The paper also examines the role of the artist, his morality in the process of creating and experiencing the work, and the influence of the work of art on the artist himself/herself.

scholarly journals Wilde’s Language Style in The Picture of Dorian Gray

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Fang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
Language Style ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish Aestheitc Writer, is well-known for the humourous language in his works. As the “lord of language”, he deliberately utilizes English as a tool to show the beauty of the language itself. His only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray commendably reveals Wilde’s talent in language organizing. This paper outlines Wilde’s employing witty rhetorical devices, the harmonious diction, brilliant paradoxes, jocular dialogues and witty epigrams to help readers perceive that succinctness, vividness, impressiveness and meaningfulness form the most important features of the writing style of the novel.

scholarly journals The Impact of Psycho-ideological Hero: A Žižekian Study of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Sara Safa ◽  
Jalal Sokhanvar
Keyword(s):  
Literary Tradition ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Transitional Process ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
The Impact

This paper critically examines psycho-ideological significance of Dorian Gray, on Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Although Wilde’s novel has mostly been read as an aesthetic work of ‘Art for Art’s Sake’, the present research intends to criticize Wilde’s only novel using Žižek’s theories on subjectivity, ideology, and trauma. The brainchild of an indisputable giant literary tradition, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a tactfully designed puzzle that called the Victorian establishment into question. The thick texture of the novel, I argue, lends itself to Žižekian ideological and psychoanalytical theories wherein one can obtain a novel perspective on the issue of subjectivity. The Slovenian philosopher, Slovaj Žižek (b.1949) argues that the subject is divided and always in a transitional process until his death; Dorian is an epitome of such a subjectivity always already in transition.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Portrait of the ‘Wild Reader’

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-76
Author(s):  
Sunggyung Jo
Keyword(s):  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Everyday Experience ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Violent Acts ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
As If ◽  
Reading Texts

Paul Jay claims that we need to pay renewed attention to the aesthetic to address and incorporate everyday experience into our academic discussions. Clearly, at stake here is the opportunity to reconceptualise the symbiotic relationship between literature and ordinary readers. In this essay, I propose a concept that I call ‘wild reading’ through which to understand sensuous, and potentially violent, acts of reading texts, as represented in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The novel repeatedly portrays reading as an act of wild, sensual submission to seductive ‘texts’, as if one were succumbing to the charms of an irresistible lover. I am going to focus on, and analyse, particular scenes in the novel, by means of which I will conceptualise and discuss the notion of ‘wild reading’ as performed by Wilde's characters. Ultimately, I suggest ‘wild reading’ as a useful aesthetic category for our own everyday experience of reading and as a vehicle through which we might understand actual readers’ desire-driven acts of imagination triggered by a seductive text.

scholarly journals Specificity of the use of aphorisms in the novel "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-59
Author(s):  
S. O. Shekhavtsova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
The Novel ◽  
General Significance ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Pragmatic Attitude

The article deals with the study of the concept of «aphorism», the identification of essential features of the concept of aphorism and the definition of the specifics of the use of aphorisms in the novel «The Portrait of Dorian Gray» by Oscar Wilde. An analysis of the studies of leading national and foreign linguists who studied the specifics of aphorisms showed that the essential features of aphorism: briefness, depth of thought, informative brevity, a high degree of generalization (general significance), completeness of thought, truthfulness (truthfulness), imagery (expressiveness, expressiveness) originality, didacticity, authorship, accuracy, sharpness of form, paradox, wit, novelty, communicative clarity. It has been proven that the English-language aphorism is characterized by a wide range of pragmatic attitudes: statement, summarizing, pairing, reasoning, reservations or threat, exposure or reproach, complaints, self-justification, self-deprecation, justification, reassurance, motivation, advice, cognition ect. Pragmatic attitudes in English-language aphorisms are realized with the help of a wide range of linguo-stylistic means. Based on our research, we have determined the specifics of the use of aphorisms in the novel «The Portrait of Dorian Gray» by Oscar Wilde. We found that English-language aphorisms contain a pragmatic attitude of humiliation and self-deprecation, which are used very limitedly in the novel «The Picture of Dorian Gray» by Oscar Wilde. Aphorisms with a pragmatic attitude of justification and self-justification are used much more widely. According to our research, we have proved that the most common are aphorisms containing a pragmatic attitude of criticism.

scholarly journals Art, the Artist and Ethics in Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Zrinka Frleta
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
Art And Ethics

This paper examines ideological and philosophical premises of aestheticism, presented in Wilde's critical essays (The Critic as Artist and The Decay of Lying), and epigrams in the preface to the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which both offer a philosophical context to the novel. Aestheticism emphasized that art can not be subordinated to moral, social, religious and didactic goals, because its ultimate goal is art itself, l'art pour l'art (art for art's sake). „Art never expresses anything but itself.“ „All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals.“ „Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.“ „Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.“ (Wilde, 1891). The relations between art and reality (concealment of reality) and art and ethics (an ethical function of art) have been explored through the interaction of the characters of Basil Hallward and Sibyl Vane with Dorian Gray. The paper also examines the role of the artist, his morality in the process of creating and experiencing the work, and the influence of the work of art on the artist himself/herself.

Wilde’s New Republic

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marylu Hill
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Classical Training ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
New Republic ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Philosophical Questions

As a result of his classical training in the Honours School of Literæ Humaniores at Oxford, Oscar Wilde drew frequently on the works of Plato for inspiration, especially the Republic. The idea of a New Republic and its philosophy resonated profoundly with Wilde—so much so that the philosophical questions raised in Plato’s Republic become the central problems of The Picture of Dorian Gray. This chapter maps the parallels between the Republic and Dorian Gray, with specific focus on several of Plato’s most striking images from the Republic. In particular, the depiction of Lord Henry suggests not only the philosophical soul gone corrupt, but also the ‘drone’ who seduces the oligarchic young man into a life of ‘unprincipled freedom’, according to Plato’s definition of democracy. By invoking the Socratic lens, Wilde critiques Lord Henry’s anti-philosophy of the ‘New Hedonism’ and contrasts it with the Socratic eros.

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