Ruskin’s heirs: art, nature and socialism

At the end of the Victorian era, the great intellectual influence of John Ruskin convinced some young artists, intellectuals and activists like William Morris and Edward Carpenter to tightly link artistic and political commitments. The article presents the shapes and consequences of these links. Mor...

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Main Author: Charles-François MATHIS
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) 2016-06-01
Series:E-REA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/erea/5106
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author Charles-François MATHIS
author_facet Charles-François MATHIS
author_sort Charles-François MATHIS
collection DOAJ
description At the end of the Victorian era, the great intellectual influence of John Ruskin convinced some young artists, intellectuals and activists like William Morris and Edward Carpenter to tightly link artistic and political commitments. The article presents the shapes and consequences of these links. Morris and Carpenter were led to socialism by a refusal of the industrial civilisation of their time, and particularly of its ugliness. But their commitment was at the same time traditional and peculiar—Morris conceiving socialism as a means to achieve a beauty-loving society, whereas Carpenter saw it as a sort of religion of mankind. Therefore, their political commitment was strongly shaped by their artistic ideals. Conversely, the political dimension of their thoughts had an impact on their artistic works: it somehow kept Carpenter off his first poetic enthusiasm, and led Morris to a painful artistic aporia.
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publisher Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
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spelling doaj-art-9f2c9609c8bd434faa560c8638404ad52025-01-09T12:54:54ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182016-06-0113210.4000/erea.5106Ruskin’s heirs: art, nature and socialismCharles-François MATHISAt the end of the Victorian era, the great intellectual influence of John Ruskin convinced some young artists, intellectuals and activists like William Morris and Edward Carpenter to tightly link artistic and political commitments. The article presents the shapes and consequences of these links. Morris and Carpenter were led to socialism by a refusal of the industrial civilisation of their time, and particularly of its ugliness. But their commitment was at the same time traditional and peculiar—Morris conceiving socialism as a means to achieve a beauty-loving society, whereas Carpenter saw it as a sort of religion of mankind. Therefore, their political commitment was strongly shaped by their artistic ideals. Conversely, the political dimension of their thoughts had an impact on their artistic works: it somehow kept Carpenter off his first poetic enthusiasm, and led Morris to a painful artistic aporia.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/5106artRuskinMorrisCarpenternaturesocialism
spellingShingle Charles-François MATHIS
Ruskin’s heirs: art, nature and socialism
E-REA
art
Ruskin
Morris
Carpenter
nature
socialism
title Ruskin’s heirs: art, nature and socialism
title_full Ruskin’s heirs: art, nature and socialism
title_fullStr Ruskin’s heirs: art, nature and socialism
title_full_unstemmed Ruskin’s heirs: art, nature and socialism
title_short Ruskin’s heirs: art, nature and socialism
title_sort ruskin s heirs art nature and socialism
topic art
Ruskin
Morris
Carpenter
nature
socialism
url https://journals.openedition.org/erea/5106
work_keys_str_mv AT charlesfrancoismathis ruskinsheirsartnatureandsocialism