Symbolism and Expressionism in Literature
Key Characteristics of Symbolism
Symbolism, a late 19th-century movement, prioritized suggestion and the evocation of emotions and ideas over direct representation. Key features include:
- Musicality of Verse: “Music before all things,” as poet Paul Verlaine stated. Symbolists believed music was uniquely capable of expressing the ineffable (what cannot be expressed in words). This resulted in a search for suggestive movement in poetic language, often using assonance instead of strict rhyme.
- Power of Suggestion: Symbolist poetry aimed to create in the reader a state similar to the poet’s creative experience. Language has both expressive and suggestive value, hinting at the ineffable.
- Imagination: As in Romanticism, imagination is paramount.
- Mystery: Mallarmé believed that naming an object diminishes it. Unlike confessional Romantic poetry, Symbolists veiled meaning in mystery, encouraging the reader to actively participate in creating meaning.
- Use of Symbol: Symbols express ideas that transcend abstract logic. They seek to describe the essence of the universe through individual existence, capturing subjective poetic reality. A symbol is a metaphor used repeatedly in the same sense, representing an abstract concept through an object or image (e.g., light, jungle, panther, wolf, lion).
- Theory of Synesthesia: Synesthesia is the fusion of sensations. Our senses intermingle, revealing hidden meanings. For example, “a mute place of light,” “the sun is silent” (Baudelaire’s sonnet *Correspondences*). “Perfumes as cool as the flesh of children, / Sweet as the oboe, green as prairies.”
- Theory of Correspondences: These are associations between the material and spiritual worlds. Baudelaire believed the universe is interdependent. Symbolists aim to capture the unity of the cosmos through the self. The goal isn’t to express emotional reality (like Romanticism) or scientific reality (like Naturalism), but to transcend it, reaching a “super-reality” (foreshadowing Surrealism). For example, “corrupt, rich, and triumphant” perfumes relate sensations to abstract concepts.
- Free Verse: Initially using Parnassian forms, Symbolists later embraced free verse, feeling free to choose their own conventions. Baudelaire, bridging Romanticism, Symbolism, and Parnassianism, used this form.
Expressionism in Art and Literature
Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for emotional effect. It appears in many art forms, including painting, literature, film, architecture, and music.
Key Features of Expressionism
- Distorted shapes and the use of strong, pure colors.
- Random combinations, all intended to imbue works with disproportionate psychological and expressive force.
- Use of lines to transmit the rhythm of feelings.
- Protagonists often wear masks or are placed in landscapes.
- Factual representation of the human figure is abandoned in favor of disfigured, sad faces.
- Dominated by blue, yellow, and green, contrasting with black and white.
Expressionism in Literature
In literature, as in painting, salient themes include war, the city, fragmentation, fear, loss of individual identity, and a sense of purpose in the world (apocalypse).