The Italian and English aesthetic movement

The aestheticism was an important intellectual movement that was born at the end of
the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th one. In England the mast important poet
of this trend was Oscar Wilde, with his masterpiece The picture of Dorian Gray; on
the contrary, in Italy we there was Gabriele DAnnunzio and his bestseller Il piacere.
In these two works we can found the principal differences between the English and
Italian aestheticism and their decadence. The English poet, in his novel, reclaims the
main themes of the German Renaissance, linked to the vision of nature as a dark and
mysterious figure, but at the same time he introduces the innovation of the
aestheticism. Oscar Wilde, with this new poetic diction, tries to use the beautiful word
and to seduce the readers with his words. Gabriele DAnnunzio, on the other hand,
introduces to the idea of aestheticism the image of the superuomo, saw as a man
and an example to follow for the improvement of society. The Italian author, moreover,
was also influenced by the Italian classicism respect to Wilde, and so DAnnunzio uses
aestheticism in particular with the use of archaic words.