Symbolism (arts)

Symbolism was a late nineteenth century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts.

Symbolism as a movement

The Symbolist Manifesto

Symbolists believed that art should aim to capture more absolute truths which could only be accessed by indirect methods. Thus, they wrote in a highly metaphorical and suggestive manner, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning. The Symbolist manifesto (?Le Symbolisme?, Le Figaro, 18 Sept 1886) was published in 1886 by Jean Moréas. Moréas announced that Symbolism was hostile to "plain meanings, declamations, false sentimentality and matter-of-fact description," and that its goal instead was to "clothe the Ideal in a perceptible form" whose "goal was not in itself, but whose sole purpose was to express the Ideal":

Related Topics:
Symbolist manifesto - 1886 - Jean Moréas

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:In this art, scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena will not be described for their own sake; here, they are perceptible surfaces created to represent their esoteric affinities with the primordial Ideals.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paul Verlaine and the poètes maudits

But perhaps of the several attempts at defining the essence of Symbolism, none was more influential than Paul Verlaine's 1884 publication of a series of essays on Tristan Corbière, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stephane Mallarmé, each of whom Verlaine numbered among the poètes maudits, "accursed poets."

Related Topics:
Paul Verlaine - 1884 - Tristan Corbière - Arthur Rimbaud - Stephane Mallarmé

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Verlaine argued that in their individual and very different ways, each of these hitherto neglected poets found genius a curse; it isolated them from their contemporaries, and as a result these poets were not at all concerned to avoid hermeticism and idiosyncratic writing styles. In this conception of genius and the role of the poet, Verlaine referred obliquely to the aesthetics of Arthur Schopenhauer, the philosopher of pessimism, who held that the purpose of art was to provide a temporary refuge from the world of blind strife of the will.

Related Topics:
Genius - Hermeticism - Aesthetics - Arthur Schopenhauer - Pessimism - Will

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Symbolism and philosophy

Schopenhauer's aesthetics reflected shared concerns with the Symbolist programme; they both tended to look to Art as a contemplative refuge from the world of strife and Will. From this desire for an artistic refuge from the world, the Symbolists took characteristic themes of mysticism and otherworldliness, a keen sense of mortality, and a sense of the malign power of sexuality. Mallarmé's poem Les fenêtres (http://cage.ugent.be/~dc/Literature/Mallarme/Mal08.html) expresses all of these themes clearly. A dying man in a hospital bed, seeking escape from the pain and dreariness of his physical surroundings, turns toward his window; turns away in disgust from:

Related Topics:
Schopenhauer's aesthetics - Will - Mysticism - Mortality - Sexuality

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:. . . . l'homme à l'âme dureVautré dans le bonheur, où ses seuls appétitsMangent, et qui s'entête à chercher cette ordurePour l'offrir à la femme allaitant ses petits,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::("the hard-souled man, wallowing in happiness, where only his appetites feed, and who insists on seeking out this filth to offer to the wife suckling his children")

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

and in contrast, he "turns his back on life" (tourne l’épaule à la vie) and he exclaims:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Je me mire et me vois ange! Et je meurs, et j'aime— Que la vitre soit l'art, soit la mysticité —A renaître, portant mon rêve en diadème,Au ciel antérieur où fleurit la Beauté!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::("I marvel at myself, I seem an angel! and I die, and I love --- whether the glass might be art, or mysticism --- to be reborn, bearing my dream as a diadem, under that former sky where Beauty once flourished.")

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Symbolist movement has frequently been confused with Decadence. Several young writers were derisively referred to in the press as "decadent" in the mid 1880s. Jean Moréas' manifesto was largely a response to this polemic. A few of these writers embraced the term while most avoided it. Although the esthetics of Symbolism and Decadence can be seen as overlapping in some areas, the two remain distinct.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~