THE NEW AESTHETIC MOVEMENT
The Aesthetic movement is the new literary movement, which was born at the end of the
Victorian Age. It was the reaction against the moralism of the Victorian up and middle
classes.
The Aesthetic Movement developed in the universities and intellectual circles in the last
decades of the 19th century, which were connoted by the events which brought to the
decline → It was a movement proper of the intellectuals
It began in France with the intellectual Théophile Gautier (1811-72) and reflected the
sense of frustration and uncertainty of the artist, his reaction against the materialism
and the restrictive moral code of the up and middle classes and his need to re-define the
role of art.
The artist feels frustrated and uncertain because it wasn't possible for any artists to
express ideas, imaginations and creativity in the Victorian Age →Everything aimed to
reflect moralism and didacticism ↴
Everything was under the control of Victorian moralizers →Aestheticism tried to
redefine the role of art
As a result, French artists withdrew from the political and social scene and 'escaped' into
aesthetic isolation, into what Gautier defined 'Art for Art's Sake' ↴
Not only french artists but also in England artists cut off to be isolated from any political
and social interest → They found an escape through art
They were not interested in the social context, they wanted to redefine art according to
its proper needing, not art linked with social problems like the art of Dickens as novelist ↴
'Art for Art's Sake' →means that any form of art must be without any didactic or
moral aim;the only purpose of art is to have no purpose ⇨You have to read a novel or
listen to music only for pleasure or to enjoy your senses ↴
In France the bohémien was representative of the values against the materialism, the
hypocrisy, the moralizing of the Victorian Age
