The symbolist movement;: A critical appraisal,

by Anna Balakian

O Simbolismo aborda a corrente pós-romântica originada na literatura francesa dos fins do século XIX e começo do século XX. É um guia sucinto e preciso deste movimento que analisa a evolução, a poética, os poetas, dramaturgos e romancistas que fizeram da arte produzida uma abertura para a estética da modernidade.

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 1977

Reviews

[Ana Julia]

Es increíble cómo Anna Balakian tiene la capacidad de hablarte de algo tan complejo y rico como el simbolismo y hacerlo bien, y además entendible y además entretenido.
Este es un ensayo maravilloso, pedagógico e interesantísimo que durante la lectura siempre se fue adelantando a mis preguntas.

No sabía nada de simbolismo -y todavía siento que no lo sé, debo hacer una relectura- y ahora al menos entiendo cosas que me eran inaccesibles y podría echarte un cuántico de, por ejemplo, el teatro simbolista.

[Mark Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inexplicably, this is one of the only full-length scholarly studies of the important late-nineteenth, early-twentieth-century European artistic movement known as Symbolism. The author locates the origins of Symbolism in Swedenborgian mysticism, where the notion of "correspondences" between earthly life and an invisible heaven mediated through symbols was popularized. The basic principle of Symbolism lies in synthesizing an abstract concept (i.e. "death," a favorite subject) with a concrete reality (say, barren ground or a glacier) in an arresting "poetic" image mediating the two realms that in turn suggests truths and connections transcending both. Artists influenced by Symbolist doctrine developed this principle to an extremely subtle degree. Balakian is very good at delineating the often subtle differences between related literary movements (this is fundamentally a study in literary criticism, though the author often mentions links with other artistic media: painting, music, etc. each having their own Symbolist movement) such as Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, and Surrealism. She also underscores some of the pitfalls of the symbolist approach, including the perennial tendency of the symbol to collapse into allegory - a definite one-to-one correspondence of meaning, especially after becoming familiar and overused, while the true symbol is allusive, suggestive, and ambiguous, and mediates among several shades and nuances of meaning. She also emphasizes the close connection between the Symbolist movement and Decadence, at least initially, while later developments sought to sever this connection. She devotes individual chapters to each of the major figures of French Symbolism - Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Mallarme - and she is very good at identifying the differences in their styles and approaches, while there are general chapters devoted to Swedenborgism, the broad conventions of Symbolism, Symbolist theater (Maeterlinck, Claudel, Synge, Yeats), and the Afterglow of Symbolism's long shadow on subsequent artistic developments (Eliot, Valery, Lorca, Stevens, and other national developments). One problem with her approach is a seemingly complete lack of awareness of the social and political conditions for Symbolism's emergence, as well as its implications, though her explication is clear and solid, making it relatively easy to map her analysis onto these other areas, including its connections with Critical Theory. Adorno, for one, drew heavily on Symbolism's dualistic subject-object ontology in fashioning his dialectical criticism, while eschewing it's mysticism and obscurantism. Symbolism thus became a flashpoint for culture wars between Right and Left during the interwar period, though one would never know this from reading this book. Poetic excerpts are given in the original language only. All in all, a useful and necessary volume for students of European cultural history, literature, and artistic movements, even for those dealing with other media. The author has also edited a valuable volume mapping out the broad reach of Symbolism, titled The Symbolist Movement in the Literature of European Languages.

[Ratatoskr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the 1967 paperback edition published by Random House which GR doesn't have a listing for apparently. This was an insightful and well-written overview of the development and legacy of Symbolist poetry and poetic elements of Symbolist drama. I did have some issues with it however. I wanted to see more specific examples and I wanted to see more of the examples provided accompanied by English translations. The author considers translation to be "poetic hearsay", which is a legitimate perspective, but she is writing to a primarily English speaking audience, so hearsay is better than no say (or rather limited understanding on the part of an educated audience who nevertheless is not so fluent in French, German, Spanish, etc. that they can get all the nuances of poetry). I also wanted to see more cultural and critical context than she provides and more connections made to music (which she makes a little) and painting (which she doesn't make at all). That is a different book however, and I valued what this one contributed to my knowledge of the subject considerably. She did a particularly nice job at finding a middle road between a very limited school of French writing during the decade of 1885 and 1895 and the broad treatment of a critic like Edmund Wilson who covers a wider variety of literature from 1870-1930 in "Axel's Castle". Key to Balakian's perspective is the organization of the material she covers in terms of three elements: "ambiguity of indirect communication; affiliation with music; and the 'decadent' spirit".