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Symbolism evolved in France in the second half of the nineteenth century as a reaction to the grim realities and hardened vision of realism and naturalism. But it was far from a lofty elevation of idealism, no, it instead sought to illustrate and exalt the overlooked banalities of everyday life. Symbolists also plunged into spirituality, imagination and dreams.
The roots of the movement in literature lie in Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal (1857) and was developed by Stephane Mallarme and Paul Verlaine during the 1860s and 1870s. Through them an approach to art evolved where the truth was sought by applying metaphorical and suggestive means.
The Truth, the Absolute, the Ideal was difficult to grasp; so it was too simple a method to directly explain, instead more comprehensive approaches had to be utilised. Plain description was replaced by complex evocation and hence the movement was typified by the use of free verse. The power of suggestion dominated all works produced and in line with this, artists were greatly influenced by psychological theory and occult doctrines. Spirituality was achieved by intuition, fantasy, imagination, dreams, visions, hypnosis and alchemy.
The Symbolists drew on Schopenhauer's theory that all art's purpose was to provide a temporary refuge from the realities of the world, and thus their subsequent immersion in mysticism and otherworldliness and their sense of their own mortality. Symbolism had a significant influence on early Modernists such as T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, Apollinaire and William Butler Yeats. After the turn of the century Symbolism became prevalent in Russian poetry. Symbolist artists were the definitive precursors of expressionism and surrealism in painting.
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net
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