JOURNAL ENTRY

 Journal Entry on Oscar Wilde and Aestheticism Project instructions:

For this journal entry, first read The Importance of Being Earnest and the conclusion of Walter Pater?s Studies in the History of the Renaissance in the module resources.

Walter Pater?s ?Conclusion? sets forth the central idea of the Aesthetic Movement?that, because all is flux and transience, we must savor ?the poetic passion, the desire of beauty, the love of art for its own sake.?

Discuss the Aesthetic Movement itself by analyzing Pater?s text. Speculate on how and why it generated such a changed vision of the purpose of art and literature. What is the connection between this vision and the doubts and uncertainties expressed in earlier Victorian literature? What are the connections with fin de si?cle theories of degeneracy? And what connections are there to science?

For additional details, please refer to the Module Eight Journal Rubric document in the Assignment Guidelines and Rubrics section of the course.

Resources:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/844/844-h/844-h.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20131004211626/http://www.victorianprose.org/index.htm?author_pater.htm