Russian symbolism

Symbolism- a trend in literature and art, which first appeared in France in the last quarter of the 19th century and by the end of the century had spread to most European countries. But after France, it is in Russia that symbolism is realized as the most large-scale, significant and original phenomenon in culture. Many representatives of Russian symbolism bring new ones into this direction, often having nothing in common with their French predecessors. Symbolism becomes the first significant modernist movement in Russia; simultaneously with the emergence of symbolism in Russia, the Silver Age of Russian literature begins; in this era, all new poetic schools and individual innovations in literature are, at least in part, under the influence of symbolism - even outwardly hostile trends (futurists, "Forge", etc.) largely use symbolist material and begin with the denial of symbolism. But in Russian symbolism there was no unity of concepts, there was no single school, no single style; even among the symbolism rich in originals in France you will not find such a variety and such similar friend for other examples. In addition to the search for new literary perspectives in form and subject matter, perhaps the only thing that united Russian symbolists was distrust of the ordinary word, the desire to express themselves through allegories and symbols. “A thought spoken is a lie” - a verse by the Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev, the forerunner of Russian symbolism.

Features and predecessors of Russian symbolism

Russian symbolism at first had basically the same prerequisites as Western symbolism: "a crisis of a positive worldview and morality" (in Russia - in the context of the crisis of populist cultural tradition). Panaestheticism becomes the main principle of the early Russian Symbolists; aestheticization of life and the desire for various forms substitution aesthetics of logic and morality. "Beauty will save the world" gets new coverage. Russian symbolism, actively absorbing the modernist literature of the West, seeks to absorb and include in its range of topics and interests all the phenomena of world culture, which, according to Russian symbolists, meet the principles of "pure", free art. Antiquity, renaissance, romanticism - eras in which V. Bryusov, D. Merezhkovsky, N. Minsky and others find artists and poets of symbolism. Art itself begins to be understood as the accumulator and preserver of the beautiful (pure experience and true knowledge). “Nature creates unfinished freaks - sorcerers improve Nature and give life a beautiful face” (K. Balmont) But in Russian literature of the 2nd half of the 19th century, certain principles dominated, if not subordination, then the necessary connection of art with the soil, with the people, the state and etc. Therefore, the first publications of Russian symbolists, not yet adapted to the Russian spirit, met with more than a cold reception. The next generation, to some extent, continues hard work on the interpretations of "pan-aestheticism", but it no longer dominates, mixing with more and more relevant religious-philosophical and myth-making searches.

Senior Russian Symbolists (1890s) at first met with criticism and the reading public mainly rejection and ridicule. As the most convincing and original phenomenon, Russian symbolism made itself known at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the advent of a new generation, with their interest in folk and Russian song, with their more sensitive and organic appeal to Russian literary traditions.

Through the heads of their "teachers", in many respects imitators of the West, the younger generation of symbolists "discovers" more and more new domestic predecessors. A new interpretation in the light of symbolism is received by many works by A. Pushkin (“The Prophet”, “Poet”, etc.), F. Tyutchev (first of all, “Silentium!”, which has become a kind of manifestation of Russian symbolism, and others), St. Petersburg novels by Gogol ; the legacy of F. Dostoevsky appears deeper, larger and more symbolic. An early "representative" of symbolism was also seen in K. N. Batyushkov (1787-1855), "insane" for his contemporaries.

Even more undoubted predecessors of symbolism are Russian poets of the 19th century, close to the ideas of "pure poetry", such as A. Fet, Ya. Polonsky, A. Maikov, E. Baratynsky. Tyutchev, who pointed the way to music and nuance, symbol and dream, led Russian poetry, according to symbolist criticism, away from the Apollonian harmonies of Pushkin's time. But it was precisely this path that was close to many Russian symbolists.

Finally, it is impossible to imagine a worldview junior symbolists without the influence of the personality of Vladimir Solovyov. Sophiology, catholicity, the ideal of "whole knowledge", the desire to unite epistemology with ethics and aesthetics, the cult of the eternal feminine, Russia and the West, the possibilities of religious modernization and the prospect of church unification are some of the most important themes developed by the younger generation of symbolists in the early years of the twentieth century influenced by the legacy of Vladimir Solovyov.

Russian Symbolists

Senior Symbolists

Russian symbolism declares itself in the first half of the 1890s. Several publications are usually cited as the starting points of his story; first of all, these are: “On the causes of the decline ...”, the literary-critical work of D. Merezhkovsky and the almanacs “Russian Symbolists”, published at his own expense by student Valery Bryusov in 1894. These three pamphlets (the last book was published in 1895) were created by two authors (often acting as translators within this publication): Valery Bryusov (as Chief Editor and the author of demonstrations and under the masks of several pseudonyms) and his student friend - A. L. Miropolsky.

Thus, Merezhkovsky and his wife, Zinaida Gippius, were at the origins of symbolism in St. Petersburg, Valery Bryusov - in Moscow. But the most radical and prominent representative early St. Petersburg symbolism became Alexander Dobrolyubov, "a decadent way of life" in student years which served to create one of the most important biographical legends of the Silver Age.

The myth about Alexander Dobrolyubov, which began to take shape already in early period development of Russian symbolism - no matter what it is called, whether "diabolical" (Hansen-Lewe) or "decadent" (I.P. Smirnov), - was finally formed at the beginning of the 20th century, that is, when Dobrolyubov himself had already left literature and broke with his usual literary and artistic circle ... Of course, not only Dobrolyubov came up with the idea of ​​the inferiority of literary creativity compared to life. So, for example, Merezhkovsky, whose name is also associated with the emergence of symbolism as a trend, admitted in his autobiography that in his youth he “walked through the villages, talked with the peasants” and “intends upon graduating from the university“ to go to the people ”, to become a village teacher. The futurist poet Bozhidar later dreamed of going to the ends of the world, to wild peoples not spoiled by civilization. But only Dobrolyubov (and after him - the poet Leonid Semenov) managed to show consistency and overcome the conventionality of creativity. The second side of the myth is the feeling of the constant, as they would say now, virtual presence of the departed poet in everyday literary reality. In the repeatedly cited memoirs of G. Ivanov, it is told how the writers, going to the tram stop to go to the editorial office of the journal "Hyperborea", met a man in a cap, in felt boots, in a sheepskin coat. His question: “Tell me, gentlemen, where is the Apollo located?” - plunges into shock and evokes the image of Alexander Dobrolyubov.

“... This mysterious, semi-legendary man,” writes G. Ivanov. “According to rumors, he wanders somewhere in Russia - from the Urals to the Caucasus, from Astrakhan to St. we saw him or how he seemed to us on a half-dark St. Petersburg street<…>somewhere, for some reason, wandering - for a very long time, since the beginning of the nine hundredth years - in Russia<…>

A strange and extraordinary life: something from the poet, something from Alyosha Karamazov, many more different “somethings”, mysteriously mixed up in this man, whose charm, they say, was irresistible.

- Alexander Kobrinsky Conversation through dead space

In Moscow, "Russian Symbolists" are published at their own expense and are met with a "cold reception" from critics; Petersburg was more fortunate with modernist publications - already at the end of the century, the Northern Messenger, World of Art were operating there ... However, Dobrolyubov and his friend and fellow student at the gymnasium, V. V. Gippius, also publish the first cycles of poems at their own expense; come to Moscow and get acquainted with Bryusov. Bryusov did not have a high opinion of the art of Dobrolyubov's versification, but Alexander's personality made a strong impression on him, which left a mark on his future fate. Already in the first years of the twentieth century, being the editor of the most significant symbolist publishing house Scorpio, which appeared in Moscow, Bryusov published Dobrolyubov's poems. By his own, later, confession, at an early stage of his work, greatest influence of all his contemporaries, Bryusov took over from Alexander Dobrolyubov and Ivan Konevsky (a young poet whose work was highly appreciated by Bryusov; he died in the twenty-fourth year of his life).

Fyodor Sologub (Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov) created his own special poetic world and innovative prose independently from all modernist groups - apart, but in such a way that it is impossible not to notice. The novel "Heavy Dreams" was written by Sologub back in the 1880s, the first verses are marked 1878. Until the 1890s he worked as a teacher in the provinces, since 1892 he settled in St. Petersburg. Since the 1890s, a circle of friends has been gathering in the writer's house, often bringing together authors from different cities and warring publications. Already in the twentieth century, Sologub became the author of one of the most famous Russian novels of this era - The Little Demon (1907), introducing the terrible teacher Peredonov into the circle of Russian literary characters; and even later in Russia he is declared the "king of poets" ...

But, perhaps, the works of Konstantin Balmont became the most readable, most sonorous and musical poems at an early stage of Russian symbolism. Already at the end of the nineteenth century, K. Balmont most clearly declares the “search for correspondences” characteristic of the symbolists between sound, meaning and color (such ideas and experiments are known from Baudelaire and Rimbaud, and later from many Russian poets - Bryusov, Blok, Kuzmin, Khlebnikov and etc). For Balmont, as for example, for Verlaine, this search consists primarily in creating a sound-semantic fabric of the text - music that gives rise to meaning. Balmont’s passion for sound writing, colorful adjectives that displace verbs, leads to the creation of almost “meaningless”, according to ill-wishers, texts, but this interesting phenomenon in poetry leads over time to the emergence of new poetic concepts (sound writing, zaum, melodeclamation); Balmont is a very fruitful author - more than thirty books of poetry, translations (W. Blake, E. Poe, Indian poetry and more), numerous articles.

I am the sophistication of Russian slow speech, Before me are other poets - forerunners, For the first time I discovered deviations in this speech, Repetitive, angry, tender ringing. K. Balmont

Young Symbolists (second "generation" of Symbolists)

In Russia, junior symbolists are mainly called writers who published their first publications in the 1900s. Among them were really very young authors, like Sergey Solovyov, A. Bely, A. Blok, Ellis, and very respectable people, like the director of the gymnasium I. Annensky, scientist Vyacheslav Ivanov, musician and composer M. Kuzmin. In the first years of the century, representatives of the young generation of symbolists create a romantically colored circle, where the skill of future classics matures, which became known as the "Argonauts" or Argonautism.

I emphasize: in January 1901, a dangerous “mystical” firecracker was planted in us, which gave rise to so many rumors about “ beautiful lady"... The composition of the circle of Argonauts, in those years of students, is outstanding ... Lev Lvovich Kobylinsky ("Ellis"), who joined us in those years and became the soul of the circle; he was literary and sociologically educated; an amazing improviser and mime ... S. M. Solovyov, a sixth-grade gymnasium student, surprising Bryusov, a young poet, philosopher, theologian ...

... Ellis called it a circle of Argonauts, coinciding with ancient myth, which tells about the journey on the ship "Argo" of a group of heroes to a mythical country: behind the Golden Fleece ... the "Argonauts" did not have any organization; the one who became close to us walked in the "argonauts", often without suspecting that the "argonaut" ... Blok felt like an "argonaut" during brief life in Moscow…

... and yet the "Argonauts" left some trace in the culture of artistic Moscow in the first decade of the beginning of the century; they merged with the "symbolists", considered themselves essentially "symbolists", wrote in symbolic journals (I, Ellis, Solovyov), but differed, so to speak, in the "style" of their manifestation. There was nothing of literature in them; and there was nothing of the outward brilliance in them; meanwhile a row interesting personalities, original not in appearance, but in essence, passed through Argonautism ...

Andrei Bely, "The Beginning of the Century". - S. 20-123.

In St. Petersburg at the beginning of the century, the “tower” of Vyach is most of all suitable for the title of “center of symbolism”. Ivanov, - the famous apartment on the corner of Tavricheskaya Street, among the inhabitants of which different time were Andrey Bely, M. Kuzmin, V. Khlebnikov, A. R. Mintslova, which was visited by A. Blok, N. Berdyaev, A. V. Lunacharsky, A. Akhmatova, "world of art" and spiritualists, anarchists and philosophers. The famous and mysterious apartment: legends are told about it, researchers study the meetings of secret communities that took place here (Haphysites, Theosophists, etc.), gendarmes organized searches and surveillance here, most of the famous poets of the era read their poems in this apartment for the first time, here for several For years, three completely unique writers lived at the same time, whose works often present fascinating puzzles for commentators and offer readers unexpected language models - this is the constant "Diotima" of the salon, Ivanov's wife, L. D. Zinovieva-Annibal, composer Kuzmin (author of romances at first, later - novels and poetry books), and - of course the host. The owner of the apartment himself, the author of the book "Dionysus and Dionysianism", was called the "Russian Nietzsche". With the undoubted significance and depth of influence in culture, Vyach. Ivanov remains "a semi-familiar continent"; this is partly due to his lengthy stays abroad and partly to the difficulty of his poetic texts, except for everything that requires rare erudition from the reader.

Examples of poetic decadence in Russia can be found in early works V. Bryusov, for example, "Creativity" is a poem, which, according to Vl. Solovyov, is a decadent pearl and completely devoid of any meaning -

Creativity The shadow of uncreated creatures sways in a dream, Like the blades of patching On the enamel wall. Violet hands On the enamel wall Sleepily draw sounds In the sonorous silence. And transparent stalls, In the sonorous silence, Grow like sparkles, Under the azure moon. A naked moon rises Under the azure moon... Sounds hover half asleep, Sounds caress me. The secrets of created creatures caress me with caress, And the patchwork shadow trembles On the enamel wall.

and in many poems by Z. Gippius (they often quote the illustrative poem “Everything is around”). The features of decadence are often seen in the peculiar mythological symbolism of the poetic world of F. Sologub. There is often talk of "overcoming decadence" by the younger Symbolists; however, strictly speaking, one can discern the features of romantics in them, but there is not a single decadent.

Symbolist poets in Russia

Symbolism in Russian art

Symbolism was a multilateral phenomenon of culture, and covered not only literature but also music, theater, and art. The main motives of this trend can be seen in the work of such outstanding composers as Alexander Skryabin, Igor Stravinsky and others. art magazine The World of Art under the leadership of S. P. Diaghilev is becoming not only the brightest art magazine in Russia, but also the most powerful means of promoting Russian culture in Europe through the organization of international exhibitions and the publication of reproductions of works of Russian art in the European press. This magazine was based on the work of the founders - a group of young artists: A. Benois, L. Bakst, M. Dobuzhinsky. In addition to those named, V. Borisov-Musatov, M. Vrubel and others collaborated with this journal at different times.

Everyone now famous representative The symbolist current had its own way to it, and the work of all symbolists cannot always be united by any one characteristic feature. In their work, the Symbolists strove to create a complex, associative metaphor, abstract and irrational. This is the desire for “that which is not in the world” in Gippius, “ringing-sounding silence” in Bryusov, “Rebellion is dark in bright eyes” in Vyach. Ivanov, “the abyss of azure torn to shreds” by Blok, “dry deserts of shame” by A. Bely. Symbolists defined the concept of "symbol" as the sign that connects two realities, two worlds - earthly and heavenly, and this connection is established only by feelings, intuitively, irrationally. Bryusov called symbolism "poetry of allusions". Bely approached this phenomenon more broadly: he perceived symbolism as a modus cogitandi (way of thinking) and as a modus vivendi (way of life), and he devoted a number of articles to this, which were later included in the book "Symbolism as a World View". Representatives of this trend believed that only art helps to achieve ideals, to join the kingdom of the soul. The role of the symbolist poet they erected to the fact that he is the creator of a new life, a prophet, he helps to create a new person. The symbolists considered the mission of the poet to be the highest on earth, since art for them was above all spheres of human life.

Talk about the decline of symbolism as a single trend came in 1910. All its representatives continued to work fruitfully, to create, but from about that time on their paths, including creative ones, began to diverge: they began to focus more on their own creativity. But this was not the death of symbolism, as many assumed. Symbolism had a huge impact on the literature and art of subsequent generations and laid down many creative traditions that are followed to this day.

Notes

All sections up to "Symbolism in Russian Art" are written based on the materials of the author's lectures, approved for use in the system higher education. This publication does not violate anyone's copyright. All the facts presented in the article can be verified.

Literature

1. literary heritage. - M .: 1937. - T. 27-28.
2. White A. Symbolism as a worldview / Comp., entry. Art. and approx. L. A. Sugay. - M.: Respublika, 1994. - 528 p. - (Thinkers of the XX century).
3. Payman Avril. History of Russian symbolism / Authorized trans. from English. V. V. Isaakovich. - M.: Respublika, 2000. - 415 p.
4. Tukh B.I. Guide to the Silver Age: A short popular essay on one era in the history of Russian culture. - M.: "Octopus", 2005. - 208 p. - 2nd ed.
5. Encyclopedia of Symbolism, ed. Jean Kassu. - M., 1998.
6. Kolobaeva L. A. Russian symbolism. - M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 2000. - 296 p.

The first and most significant of the modernist movements in Russia. By the time of formation and by the peculiarities of the worldview position in Russian symbolism, it is customary to distinguish two main stages. Poets who debuted in the 1890s are called "senior symbolists" (, etc.). In the 1900s, new forces poured into symbolism, significantly updating the appearance of the current (, etc.). Accepted designation"second wave" of symbolism - "young symbolism". The "senior" and "junior" symbolists were separated not so much by age as by the difference in worldviews and the direction of creativity.

The philosophy and aesthetics of symbolism took shape under the influence of various teachings - from the views of the ancient philosopher Plato to the modern symbolist philosophical systems, F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson. The traditional idea of ​​knowing the world in art was opposed by the Symbolists to the idea of ​​constructing the world in the process of creativity. Creativity in the understanding of the Symbolists is a subconscious-intuitive contemplation of secret meanings, accessible only to the artist-creator. Moreover, it is impossible to rationally convey the contemplated "secrets". According to the largest theorist among the Symbolists, Vyach. Ivanov, poetry is "the cryptography of the inexpressible". The artist needs not only super-rational sensitivity, but the finest mastery of the art of allusion: the value of poetic speech lies in “innuendo”, “concealment of meaning”. The main means of conveying contemplated secret meanings and the symbol was called.

Category music- the second most important (after the symbol) in the aesthetics and poetic practice of the new trend. This concept was used by symbolists in two different aspects- worldview and technical. In the first, general philosophical sense, music for them is not a sound rhythmically organized sequence, but a universal metaphysical energy, the fundamental principle of all creativity. In the second, technical meaning, music is significant for the Symbolists as the verbal texture of the verse, permeated with sound and rhythmic combinations, that is, as the maximum use of musical compositional principles in poetry. Symbolist poems are sometimes built as a bewitching stream of verbal-musical consonances and echoes.

Symbolism enriched Russian poetic culture with many discoveries. Symbolists gave the poetic word a previously unknown mobility and ambiguity, taught Russian poetry to discover additional shades and facets of meaning in the word. Their searches in the field of poetic phonetics turned out to be fruitful: the masters of expressive assonance and spectacular alliteration were,. The rhythmic possibilities of Russian verse expanded, and the stanza became more diverse. However, the main merit of this literary trend is not associated with formal innovations.

Symbolism tried to create a new philosophy of culture, sought, having gone through a painful period of reassessment of values, to develop a new universal worldview. Having overcome the extremes of individualism and subjectivism, at the dawn of the new century, the Symbolists raised the question of the social role of the artist in a new way, began to move towards the creation of such forms of art, the experience of which could unite people again. At external manifestations elitism and formalism, symbolism managed in practice to fill the work with the art form with new content and, most importantly, to make art more personal, personalistic.

Symbolist poets

2. Symbolism as a literary movement. Senior symbolists: circles, representatives, different understanding of symbolism.

Symbolism- the first and most significant of the modernist movements in Russia. By the time of formation and by the peculiarities of the worldview position in Russian symbolism, it is customary to distinguish two main stages. The poets who debuted in the 1890s are called “senior symbolists” (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub, and others). In the 1900s, new forces poured into symbolism, significantly updating the appearance of the current (A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Ivanov, and others). The accepted designation for the "second wave" of symbolism is "young symbolism". The "senior" and "junior" symbolists were separated not so much by age as by the difference in worldviews and the direction of creativity.

The philosophy and aesthetics of symbolism was formed under the influence of various teachings - from the views of the ancient philosopher Plato to the modern symbolist philosophical systems of V. Solovyov, F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson. The traditional idea of ​​knowing the world in art was opposed by the Symbolists to the idea of ​​constructing the world in the process of creativity. Creativity in the understanding of the Symbolists is a subconscious-intuitive contemplation of secret meanings, accessible only to the artist-creator. Moreover, it is impossible to rationally convey the contemplated "secrets". According to the largest theorist among the Symbolists, Vyach. Ivanov, poetry is "the cryptography of the inexpressible". The artist needs not only super-rational sensitivity, but the finest mastery of the art of allusion: the value of poetic speech lies in “innuendo”, “concealment of meaning”. The main means to convey contemplated secret meanings was the symbol.

Category music- the second most important (after the symbol) in the aesthetics and poetic practice of the new trend. This concept was used by symbolists in two different aspects - worldview and technical. In the first, general philosophical sense, music for them is not a sound rhythmically organized sequence, but a universal metaphysical energy, the fundamental principle of all creativity. In the second, technical meaning, music is significant for the Symbolists as the verbal texture of the verse, permeated with sound and rhythmic combinations, that is, as the maximum use of musical compositional principles in poetry. Symbolist poems are sometimes built as a bewitching stream of verbal-musical consonances and echoes.

Symbolism has enriched Russian poetic culture with many discoveries. Symbolists gave the poetic word previously unknown mobility and ambiguity, taught Russian poetry to discover additional shades and facets of meaning in the word. Their searches in the field of poetic phonetics turned out to be fruitful: K. Balmont, V. Bryusov, I. Annensky, A. Blok, A. Bely were masters of expressive assonance and spectacular alliteration. The rhythmic possibilities of Russian verse expanded, and the stanza became more diverse. However, the main merit of this literary trend is not associated with formal innovations.

Symbolism tried to create a new philosophy of culture, sought, after a painful period of reassessment of values, to develop a new universal worldview. Having overcome the extremes of individualism and subjectivism, at the dawn of the new century, the Symbolists raised the question of the social role of the artist in a new way, began to move towards the creation of such forms of art, the experience of which could unite people again. With external manifestations of elitism and formalism, symbolism managed in practice to fill the work with the art form with new content and, most importantly, to make art more personal, personalistic.

Symbolism is characterized by:

form of decadence,

worship of individualism

Personal preaching.

The poet should strive to depict the path of ascent to other worlds. The knowledge of realists does not penetrate into these worlds. They have a rational, horizontal understanding of the world. The so-called causal relationship.

3 stages of development:

1.1890s Decadence period. The first manifesto Lecture Dm. Merezhkovsky "On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Russian Literature". The basic principles are:

mystical content

Symbolism of images

The concept of dual worlds (the earthly world, empirical - reality; the other world - superreality). Merezhkovsky, Gippius (Anton Krainy), Nikolai Minsky. At this time, the first symbolist magazine appeared - "The World of Art".

2. 1900s The rise of Russian symbolism. All major manifests appear. Magazines: "Scales", " New way”, “Apollo”, “Questions of Life”, “Golden Fleece” (aimed at antiquity). Balmont, Bryusov, Sologub, Ivanov.

3.1910s The Crisis of Russian Symbolism. The current gives way to acmeism.

The Parnassian poets are also called (Parnassus is a Greek mountain, on which the muses, poets lived, nearby is Mount Herrikon, where inspiration existed).

Senior Symbolists. Senior Russian Symbolists ( 1890s) at first met with criticism and the reading public mainly rejection and ridicule. As the most convincing and original phenomenon, Russian symbolism made itself known at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the advent of a new generation, with their interest in folk and Russian song, with their more sensitive and organic appeal to Russian literary traditions. The first signs of the Symbolist movement in Russia were Dmitri Merezhkovsky’s treatise “On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature” (1892), his collection of poems “Symbols”, as well as the books of Minsky “In the Light of Conscience” and A. Volynsky “Russian Critics” . In the same period of time - in 1894-1895 - three collections "Russian Symbolists" were published, in which the poems of their publisher, the young poet Valery Bryusov, were printed mainly. The initial books of poems by Konstantin Balmont - "Under the northern sky", "In the boundlessness" - adjoined here. They also gradually crystallized the symbolist view of the poetic word.

The symbolism of D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius was emphatically religious in nature, developed in line with the neoclassical tradition. The best poems of Merezhkovsky, included in the collections Symbols,Eternal companions, were built on "ugliness" with other people's ideas, were dedicated to the culture of bygone eras, gave a subjective reassessment of world classics. In Merezhkovsky's prose, based on large-scale cultural and historical material (the history of antiquity, the Renaissance, Russian history, the religious thought of antiquity), there is a search for the spiritual foundations of being, ideas that drive history. In the camp of Russian symbolists, Merezhkovsky represented the idea of ​​neo-Christianity, he was looking for a new Christ (not so much for the people, but for the intelligentsia) - "Jesus the Unknown".

In the "electric", according to I. Bunin, verses of Z. Gippius, in her prose, there is an inclination towards philosophical and religious issues, God-seeking. The severity of form, accuracy, movement towards classic expression, combined with religious and metaphysical sharpness, distinguished Gippius and Merezhkovsky among the “senior symbolists”. In their work, there are also many formal achievements of symbolism: mood music, freedom of colloquial intonations, the use of new poetic meters (for example, dolnik).

If D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius conceived of symbolism as the construction of an artistic and religious culture, then V. Bryusov, the founder of the symbolic movement in Russia, dreamed of creating a comprehensive artistic system, a “synthesis” of all directions. Hence the historicism and rationalism of Bryusov's poetry, the dream of the "Pantheon, the temple of all gods." The symbol, in the view of Bryusov, is a universal category that allows you to generalize all the truths that have ever existed, ideas about the world. V. Bryusov gave a compressed program of symbolism, "covenants" of the current in a poem To the young poet:

The affirmation of creativity as the goal of life, the glorification of the creative personality, the aspiration from the gray everyday life of the present to the bright world of the imaginary future, dreams and fantasies - these are the postulates of symbolism in the interpretation of Bryusov. Another, scandalous poem by Bryusov Creation expressed the idea of ​​intuitiveness, unaccountability of creative impulses.

From the work of D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, V. Bryusov, the neo-romanticism of K. Balmont differed significantly. In the lyrics of K. Balmont , the singer of the vastness, - the romantic pathos of elevation above everyday life, a look at poetry as life-creation. The main thing for Balmont-symbolist was the glorification of the limitless possibilities of creative individuality, the frantic search for means of its self-expression. The admiration of the transformed, titanic personality was reflected in the attitude towards the intensity of life sensations, the expansion of emotional imagery, and the impressive geographical and temporal scope.

F. Sologub continued the line of research of the “mysterious connection” of the human soul with the disastrous beginning, begun in Russian literature by F. Dostoevsky, developed a general symbolist orientation towards understanding human nature as irrational nature. One of the main symbols in Sologub's poetry and prose was the "unsteady swing" of human states, the "heavy sleep" of consciousness, and unpredictable "transformations". Sologub's interest in the unconscious, his deepening into the secrets of mental life gave rise to the mythological imagery of his prose: so the heroine of the novel petty imp Varvara - a "centaur" with a nymph's body in flea bites and an ugly face, the three Rutilov sisters in the same novel - three moira, three graces, three charites, three Chekhov sisters. Comprehension of the dark beginnings of spiritual life, neo-mythologism are the main signs of the symbolist manner of Sologub.

A huge influence on Russian poetry of the twentieth century. rendered the psychological symbolism of I. Annensky, whose collections Quiet songs and Cypress Casket appeared at a time of crisis, the decline of the symbolist movement. In Annensky's poetry there is a colossal impulse to update not only the poetry of symbolism, but also the entire Russian lyrics - from A. Akhmatova to G. Adamovich. Annensky's symbolism was built on the "exposure effects", on complex and, at the same time, very substantive, material associations, which allows us to see in Annensky the forerunner of acmeism. “A symbolist poet,” wrote the editor of the Apollo magazine, poet and critic S. Makovsky, about I. Annensky , - takes as its starting point something physically and psychologically concrete and, without defining it, often without even naming it, depicts a series of associations. Such a poet loves to amaze with an unforeseen, sometimes mysterious combination of images and concepts, striving for the impressionistic effect of revelations. An object exposed in this way seems new to a person and, as it were, experienced for the first time. For Annensky, a symbol is not a springboard for jumping to metaphysical heights, but a means of displaying and explaining reality. In the mournful-erotic poetry of Annensky, the decadent idea of ​​“prisonness”, the melancholy of earthly existence, unsatisfied eros developed.

In the theory and artistic practice of the "senior symbolists", the latest trends were combined with the inheritance of the achievements and discoveries of Russian classics. It was within the framework of the symbolist tradition that the work of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Lermontov was comprehended with new sharpness (D. Merezhkovsky L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, M.Yu.Lermontov. Poet of superhumanity), Pushkin (article by Vl. Solovyov The fate of Pushkin; Bronze Horseman V. Bryusov), Turgenev and Goncharov ( Reflection Books I. Annensky), N. Nekrasov ( Nekrasov as a city poet V. Bryusova). Among the “Young Symbolists”, A. Bely became a brilliant researcher of Russian classics (book Gogol's poetics, numerous literary references in the novel Petersburg).

Symbolism in literature is one of the currents where the symbol is the main device for artistic depiction. In this current, the artist shows the connection

• present and underworld.

The symbolist style was written by such writers as

• Vladimir Solovyov,
• Alexander Blok,
• Andrey Belov and others.

What is symbolism?

In order to understand what symbolism is in literature, let's give an example on a flower beloved by everyone - a rose. In realism, for the artist, a rose is just a flower in itself.

• with velvety delicate petals,
• enchanting aroma,
• rose gold or scarlet black.

In symbolism, the rose means an imaginary likeness

• eternal mystical love,
• devotion.

After all, for the symbolist the world does not look real, for him real world is a push into an unknown new world. In the symbolic flow, two main meanings merge:

• imaginary likeness,
• real explicit image.

How did Russian writers describe the course of symbolism in literature?

If you read a book by Alexander Blok called "On state of the art Russian symbolism”, then you can find the distinctions that he makes between the real visible world and the other world, where puppet dolls move, which are the embodiment of something

• unknown
• unidentified
• unclear
• yet always feminine.

Symbolist poets can be compared to priests or prophets of an unknown other world who possess secret knowledge and try to pass them on to us. Symbols for such mystic poets are simply

• "windows to eternity"
• "Keys to Secrets"

Another interesting statement, which is mentioned by the no less famous Russian poet Balmont: “Realists are embraced as by a wave of concrete real life, and the symbolists are separated from

• real life,
• from reality

they can only see their dream and look at the world not with a real look, but through the windows.

Why do symbolist poets treat life this way?

It is not at all accidental that the symbolists are far from reality. it feature late XIX century. As Balmont noted, “the closer we approach the new century, the more symbolist poets appear, the more there is a need for subtle feelings and thoughts, which is an integral feature of symbolic poetry.” More and more young people are carried away in their dreams to

• blue flowers,
• beautiful ladies,
• something eternally feminine.

Symbolism as a literary movement

“Symbolist poets are often reproached for creating encrypted poetry, where each word is a certain rebus that must be deciphered. Such poetry allegedly belongs only to thin lonely personalities. Not in symbolism bright colors, it is impossible to find a clear pattern here, but only a song of shades. The poets, weary of life, seem to be trying to catch the already fading shadows of the passing day. In symbolism, “chameleon words” are used, which have several meanings and suit each in their own way. Very often, the poetry of symbolism is similar to songs in which dreams are embodied, and mysterious heroes rise in musical images.

From this we can conclude that the Symbolists are cut off from the world, at the heart of their soul lies

• split,
• contradiction of two parallel worlds,
• a burning desire to run away from reality to another world, the other world.

Hiding from problems and storms in a cell or tower with colored windows, the symbolist poet will look at life through windows where people bleed in the struggle, and the symbolist will begin to create his own legend. He will listen to the sound of the surf in the shells, and not in the stormy elements. The main merit of symbolist poets is the precise development

• rhythm questions,
• poetics,
• melodies of verses and instrumentation.

It was they who were able to create prose without her presence and set a seal on all Russian poetry.

Video: The Silver Age of Russian Poetry. Symbolism. Acmeism. Futurism

A direction in the art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which is based on the expression of intuitively comprehended entities and ideas through a symbol. The real world in symbolism is conceived as a vague reflection of some otherworldly true peace, and the creative act is the only means of knowing the true essence of things and phenomena.

The origins of symbolism are in the romantic French poetry of the 1850-1860s, its characteristic features are found in the works of P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud,. The symbolists were influenced by the philosophy of A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche, creativity and. Great importance in the formation of symbolism, Baudelaire's poem "Correspondences" played, in which the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe synthesis of sound, color, smells was voiced, as well as the desire to combine opposites. The idea of ​​matching sounds and colors was developed by A. Rimbaud in the sonnet "Vowels". S. Mallarme believed that in poetry one should convey not things, but one's impressions of them. In the 1880s, the so-called bands united around Mallarmé created. "small symbolists" -, G. Kahn, A. Samen, F. Viele-Griffen and others. At this time, criticism calls the poets of the new direction "decadent", reproaching them for being divorced from reality, hypertrophied aestheticism, fashion for demonism and immoralism, decadent worldview.

The term "symbolism" was first mentioned in the manifesto of the same name by J. Moreas (Le Symbolisme // Le Figaro. 09/18/1886), where the author pointed out its difference from decadence, and also formulated the basic principles of the new direction, determined the meaning of the main concepts of symbolism - the image and ideas: “All the phenomena of our life are significant for the art of symbols not in themselves, but only as intangible reflections of the original ideas, indicating their secret affinity with them”; an image is a way of expressing an idea.

Among the largest European symbolist poets are P. Valery, Lautreamont, E. Verharn, R.M. Rilke, S. George, features of symbolism are present in the work of O. Wilde, etc.

Symbolism is reflected not only in poetry, but also in other forms of art. Dramas, G. Hofmannsthal, later contributed to the formation of the Symbolist theater. Symbolism in the theater is characterized by an appeal to the dramatic forms of the past: ancient Greek tragedies, medieval mysteries, etc., the strengthening of the role of the director, the maximum convergence with other types of art (music, painting), the involvement of the viewer in the performance, the approval of the so-called. "conditional theater", the desire to emphasize the role of subtext in the drama. The first symbolist theater was the Parisian Theater d'Art, headed by P. Faure (1890-1892).

R. Wagner is considered the forerunner of symbolism in music, in whose work the characteristic features of this direction were manifested (the French symbolists called Wagner "the true spokesman of nature modern man"). With the symbolists, Wagner was drawn together by the desire for the inexpressible and the unconscious (music as an expression of the hidden meaning of words), anti-narrativity (the linguistic structure of a musical work is determined not by descriptions, but by impressions). In general, the features of symbolism appeared in music only indirectly, as a musical embodiment of symbolist literature. Examples include C. Debussy's opera "Pelias et Mélisande" (based on the plot of the play by M. Maeterlinck, 1902), songs by G. Fauré to verses by P. Verlaine. The influence of symbolism on the work of M. Ravel is undeniable (the ballet Daphnis and Chloe, 1912; Three Poems by Stefan Mallarmé, 1913, etc.).

Symbolism in painting developed at the same time as in other forms of art, and was closely associated with post-impressionism and modernity. In France, the development of symbolism in painting is associated with the Pont-Aven school grouped around (E. Bernard, Ch. Laval, and others) and the Nabis group (P. Serusier, M. Denis, P. Bonnard, and others). The combination of decorative conventionality, ornamentality, with clearly defined foreground figures as a characteristic feature of symbolism is characteristic of F. Knopf (Belgium) and (Austria). The programmatic painting work of symbolism is the "Isle of the Dead" by A. Böcklin (Switzerland, 1883). In England, symbolism developed under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite school of the 2nd half of XIX century.

Symbolism in Russia

Russian symbolism arose in the 1890s as an opposition to the positivist tradition prevailing in society, which most clearly manifested itself in the so-called. populist literature. In addition to sources of influence common to Russian and European Symbolists, Russian authors were influenced by classical Russian literature XIX century, especially creativity, F.I. Tyutcheva, . Philosophy, in particular his doctrine of Sophia, played a special role in the development of symbolism, while the philosopher himself was rather critical of the works of the symbolists.

It is customary to share the so-called. "senior" and "junior" symbolists. The "senior" include K. Balmont, F. Sologub. To the younger ones (began to be printed in the 1900s) -, V.I. Ivanov, I.F. Annensky, M. Kuzmin, Ellis, S.M. Solovyov. Many "Young Symbolists" in 1903-1910 were members of the literary group "Argonauts".

The program manifesto of Russian symbolism is considered to be a lecture by D.S. Merezhkovsky "On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature" (St. Petersburg, 1893), in which symbolism was positioned as a full-fledged continuation of the traditions of Russian literature; the three main elements of the new art were declared to be mystical content, symbols, and the expansion of artistic impressionability. In 1894-1895 V.Ya. Bryusov publishes 3 collections "Russian Symbolists", where most of the poems belong to Bryusov himself (published under pseudonyms). Criticism greeted the collections coldly, seeing in the verses an imitation of the French decadents. In 1899, Bryusov, with the participation of Y. Baltrushaitis and S. Polyakov, founded the publishing house Scorpio (1899-1918), which published the almanac Northern Flowers (1901-1911) and the magazine Libra (1904-1909). In St. Petersburg, the Symbolists were published in the magazines "World of Art" (1898-1904) and "New Way" (1902-1904). In Moscow in 1906-1910 N.P. Ryabushinsky published the magazine "Golden Fleece". In 1909 former members"Argonauts" (A. Bely, Ellis, E. Medtner and others) founded the Musaget publishing house. One of the main "centers" of symbolism is considered to be the apartment of V.I. Ivanov on Tavricheskaya Street in St. Petersburg ("Tower"), where many prominent figures of the Silver Age visited.

In the 1910s, symbolism went through a crisis and ceased to exist as a single trend, giving way to new literary movements (acmeism, futurism, etc.). The divergence of A.A. Blok and V.I. Ivanova in understanding the essence and goals contemporary art, his connection with the surrounding reality (reports "On the current state of Russian symbolism" and "Testaments of symbolism", both 1910). In 1912, Blok considered symbolism to be a no longer existing school.

The development of the Symbolist theater in Russia is closely connected with the idea of ​​a synthesis of the arts, which was developed by many symbolist theorists (V.I. Ivanov and others). He repeatedly turned to symbolist works, most successfully - in the production of the play by A.A. Blok "Balaganchik" (St. Petersburg, Komissarzhevskaya Theatre, 1906). The Blue Bird by M. Maeterlinck staged by K.S. Stanislavsky (Moscow, Moscow Art Theater, 1908). On the whole, the ideas of the Symbolist theater (conventionality, the dictates of the director) did not meet with recognition in Russian theater school with its strong realistic traditions and focus on the vivid psychologism of acting. Disappointment in the possibilities of the Symbolist theater occurs in the 1910s, simultaneously with the crisis of Symbolism in general. In 1923 V.I. Ivanov in the article "Dionysus and Pradonisism", developing the theatrical concept of F. Nietzsche, called for theatrical performances mysteries and other mass events, but his call was not realized.

In Russian music, symbolism had the greatest influence on the work of A.N. Scriabin, which became one of the first attempts to link together the possibilities of sound and color. Striving for synthesis artistic means embodied in the symphonies "Poem of Ecstasy" (1907) and "Prometheus" ("Poem of Fire", 1910). The idea of ​​a grandiose "Mystery" that unites all types of art (music, painting, architecture, etc.) remained unrealized.

In painting, the influence of symbolism is most clearly seen in the work, V.E. Borisov-Musatov, A. Benois, N. Roerich. Symbolist in nature was the Scarlet Rose art association (P. Kuznetsov, P. Utkin and others), which arose in the late 1890s. In 1904, an exhibition of the same name of the group members took place in Saratov. In 1907, after an exhibition in Moscow, a group of artists of the same name arose (P. Kuznetsov, N. Sapunov, S. Sudeikin, and others), which existed until 1910.