Skip to main content
SWStudyWalks Search

English Literature / Unit 19   ENL 1807 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Pater and Wilde: Art for Art's Sake

Captions available

The idea

Walter Pater's Renaissance urged living intensely, "To burn always with this hard, gem-like flame," and Aestheticism held that art should be beautiful rather than teach, "art for art's sake." Wilde spread the creed and tested it in Dorian Gray.

In practice

Beauty over lesson.

Where people slip

Aestheticism rejects Sidney's teaching aim.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

Unlocks

  • Nothing yet depends on this.

Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it  ·  Sources for English Literature