王尔德童话中的死亡美学_英语论文

The Aesthetic Deaths in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales

摘要

奥斯卡·王尔德是19世纪唯美主义的代表作家,他的两部童话集《快乐王子与其他故事集》和《石榴之家》中的死亡主题皆蕴含着唯美主义美学。本文从死亡美学的角度解读王尔德的童话集,旨在理清王尔德童话中的死亡美学思想。本文首先从唯美主义与死亡美学出发,挖掘其独特的美学思想与死亡哲学,再对王尔德童话中死亡的本质进行梳理,将其归为死亡的悲剧美与死亡的超越美；并将其中的死亡因由分为三大类:为爱而亡、取义成仁和意外之死。最后,本文分别从儿童和成人的视角出发,解读王尔德童话中唯美的死亡的意义与内涵。

关键词:奥斯卡·王尔德；童话；死亡美学；唯美主义

Abstract

Oscar Wilde is a representative of Aestheticism at the end of 19th century. Death theme in his The Happy Prince and Other Stories and A House of Pomegranate reveals aesthetics of Aestheticism. This thesis focuses on the death theme and aestheticism of Wilde’s fairy tales to explore the meaning of deaths in Wilde’s fairy tales. This thesis falls into three parts. Part One gives a brief introduction to Oscar Wilde and explores Wilde’s unique aesthetic death and aestheticism. Part Two divides the essence of death into two parts: the tragic beauty of death and the transcendental beauty of death. The causes of death are divided into three parts: heroes who die of love, heroes who die of kindness and heroes who die unexpectedly. The last part explores the connotation of death in children’s eyes and in adults’ eyes. This thesis adopts close reading of the tragic endings of protagonists in Wilde’s stories, and finds out deaths in Wilde’s fairy tales due to his pursuit of love and beauty and the meaning of life.

Key words:Oscar Wilde; fairy tales; aesthetics of death; aestheticism