Poetic symbolism in literature

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, symbolism in literature marked a special period characteristic of that time. His ideas were felt throughout the last decades of the nineteenth century. Symbolism in literature with its aesthetics and philosophical aspirations ripened against the backdrop of political reaction that came after the defeat of revolutionary populism. This era represented a public stagnation. In this era symbolism arose.

Literature, poetic in particular, experienced almost a disease, a decline at that time. Poetry, having lost its former strength, tension and height, faded and faded. The very technique of the poem has lost its energy and truly creative origin.

Symbolism in literature was formed in the form of protest against impoverishment, the desire to restore her the power of life, saying a fresh word. Along with this, the direction brought with it a negative reaction to Russian criticism with its materialistic views. Later, confrontation began with Marxist critics. Poetic symbolism in literature propagated religion and idealism.

The first manifestations of the movement became visible in the treatise of Dmitry Merezhkovsky, his collection of poems "Symbols." In the years 1894-95. Came out "Russian critics." In these three collections were mostly printed works of young Bryusov, Balmont. In these works a new trend was felt.

In Russia, symbolism in literature emerged from the West is not isolated. The young poets were influenced to a certain extent by English, French, and German poetry. Despite the fact that in a way the Symbolists perceived the echoes of the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, they quite resolutely denied the existence of a fundamental dependence on Western European literature. They tried to find their roots in their native literature, the works of Fet, Tyutchev, Fofanov. There were prerequisites to establish a kind of "kinship" with the works of Lermontov and Pushkin. According to Balmont, symbolism has existed for a long time. He considered the symbolists Calderon and Blake, Baudelaire and Edgar Po and others.

There is no doubt that in the work of Tyutchev and Fet there were signs of symbolism. In addition, the fact that the direction did not die, but, on the contrary, developed, involving new forces in its own direction, testifies to the certain interrelation of the current with the spiritual culture of Russia and its national soil.

It should be noted that Russian symbolism in literature from the West differed quite sharply. This was due, first of all, to the spirituality, the richness of the accomplishments of this direction in Russia.

In the early periods of the formation of the work of the Symbolists often mocked and even mocked. To the poets, the name of the decadents was added, thus assessing their decadent mood of hopelessness, pronounced individualism, a sense of life aversion. However, by the beginning of the next century, symbolism began to stand out as a literary trend in all facets with all certainty. He was difficult to confuse with other art phenomena, he began to possess his aesthetics, poetics, his system and teaching. 1900 became a kind of frontier - during this period the "face" of symbolism in literature was established. This was marked by the emergence of the mature, brightly authored individuality of Balmont's book Burning Buildings and Bryusov's Tertia Vigilia.

In literature, the symbolist trend was a movement of romantics, who were inspired by idealistic philosophy, while recognizing the religious background of the new trend. Symbolists were able to sensitively catch and express the alarming forebodings of the tragic social catastrophes of the beginning of the twentieth century.