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British aestheticism

Movement
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A literary movement in 19th century Britain devoted to aesthetic ideals of beauty over utility

Detailed Definition
British aestheticism was a late 19th-century literary and artistic movement championing “art for art’s sake,” emphasizing sensory beauty, formal perfection, and detachment from moral or social utility; poets like Algernon Charles Swinburne and Oscar Wilde cultivated lush diction, exotic imagery, and metrical sophistication to elevate poetry as a refined, autonomous aesthetic experience.
Example
Example in poetry:
Walter Pater’s prose influenced British aestheticism’s “art for art’s sake” ethos; Oscar Wilde’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” blends beauty with moral ambiguity; Algernon Swinburne’s lush, sensuous verse exemplifies British aestheticism; Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sonnets prioritize visual and sonic beauty over narrative; Contemporary echoes appear in Carol Ann Duffy’s ornate, image-driven lyrics.
Additional Notes
An art movement (late 19th century) that emphasized "art for art's sake"; In poetry, this led to a focus on beauty, sensation, and form over moral or political didacticism; Characterized by exquisite language, detailed imagery, and a refined, often decadent, sensibility; Key figure: Oscar Wilde.
Also Known As
British fin-de-siècle aestheticism Decadent movement English aesthetic movement Aestheticism (UK/France)
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