SYMBOLISM

 

SYMBOLISM

Ø Late 19th century.

Symbolism :

Ø To throw together (in Greek).

Ø Reaction against Naturalism & Realism.

Ø Originated with a group of French poets and spread to (European & American) and other art forms.

 

Symbol-

Ø Latin- symbolum- Symbol of faith and sign of recognition.

Ø Greek- Symbolon- an object cut in half. Consisting  a sign 2 halves

Ø Symbolism is use of an object/ word or reference to add deeper meaning to a story (Abstraction)

Ø It uses figure of speech, reference, an action, place, person, word or an object which have symbolic meaning. It adds richness and colour to the work.

Ø It enhances the theme, idea or a character a deeper meaning

Ø Symbolists admire Gautier's Art for Art's Sake

Ø symbolists use "prose poems & Vers Libre (free verse)

Ø It reached its peak around 1890, and began to decline in popularity about (1900).

 

French symbolism.

Charles Baudrilaire:

Ø founder of French symbolism

Ø He inspired Verlaine & Rimbaurd greatly (4657)

Ø His collection of poem "Le Fleurs dumal" (The Flower of Evil 1857)

Ø The book associates with symbolism including painting and modernist movement.

Ø The poems deal with the themes relating to decadence and eroticism.

Ø Symbolists adopted his concept of 'The correspondences "between senses

Ø He translated Poe's works-

 

Paul Verlaine:

Ø Romances Sans Paroles (Songs without words)

 

Baudelaire:

Ø Pauvrelian and an anagram of his name

 

Stephan Mallarme

Ø L'Apres midi d'umfaune (1876)

Ø He became Leader with Divagations (1897)

 

Jean Moreas:

Ø “symbolist manifesto" was published in Le  Figaro (1886), a French newspaper in which he attacked  Realistic Novels. Naturalistic novels and Parnassian poetry.

Ø He proposed the term symboliste and symbolisme to replace Baudelaire's 'decadent'

Ø He first applied the term symbolist

 

Rimbaurd.

Ø Jules forgue:

 

 

JK Huysmans

Ø -A' rebours(against the Nature) 1884

Ø Gustav khan_ used free verse - Le Roi Fou (1896).

 

Dassian Symbolists:

Walgry Bryusov:

Ø published an anthology of Russian & French symbolist poems in (1894-95)

 

Vladimir Solovyor

Ø Became the leader

Ø Revival of poetry stemmed from this movement.

 

Aleksandr Blok:

Ø Dvenadstat: The twelve (1918)

Ø united the Russian Revolution & God in which 12 red men headed by Christ became a postles of New world.

 

British & American literature

Ø It influenced British &American lit in 20th century. - Their techniques greatly enriched the modern poetry in works of W.B Yeats TS Eliot, Ezra pound, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf.

 

Ø French Symbolism was introduced to English & American audiences largely through Arthur Symon's book “The symbolist movement in Literature" (1899).

 

Edmund wilson's -(20th century critic)

Ø Axel's castle (1931) - classic of modern literature.

Ø Analysis and authoritative study of the moment.

Ø Music affected by symbolum

 

Rich Wagner:

Ø Cherman's Richard wagner. German Opera's-

 

Symons:

Ø Symons wrote of symbolism as “an attempt to spiritualise literature” in his 1899 book The Symbolist Movement in Literature, which he dedicated to Yeats: “Description is banished that beautiful things may be evoked, magically; the regular beat of the verse is broken in order that words may fly, upon subtler wings.”