I. Symbolism

Origin and definition

It is a late 19th century art movement which finds its origin in French and Belgian poetry of the 1860's. We could say it is an outgrowth of the darker, gothic side of Romanticism, deferring from that movement by the lack rebellion of symbolist poetry : indeed, this movement can appear quite static and hieratic facing the strong idealism of romantic poets.

Definition

It is movement that does not aims at describing society as everyone experiences it, such as the naturalist movement. The point is to create something new, to show what has never been seen before. It is a radical movement, in the sense of rejection : realism and rationalism are banished. The main ideas that come out are the curse of the intangible, the fear and the anguish of the self, the representation of woman and its various forms, the decadence, the religious feeling and the wish to create an art that would be entire and radical.
The language is a major tool of the symbolists. They want us to use it in more suggestive manner. That is why this movement is called “symbolism” : the idea is to symbolise but not represent. The attention and the analysis of the reader is asked in order to understand the hidden message and why does the artist choose to represent it this way. This suggestive value of language is, to the symbolists, the only device that allows to understand the universe said to be the “symbol of another world” (“le symbole d'un autre monde”).
Foremost, a surge of Symbolist imagery at the end of the century represented a reaction to the effects of urbanization and materialism evident in the latter phases of the Industrial Revolution . Thematically, the art of Symbolism developed as a countercurrent to Impressionism and the various forms of Naturalism . It resurrected the mysticism and idealism frequently associated with German Romanticism . Symbolism emphasized the free access to the artist's inner world, allowing liberation from nature as a